The Magistrate’s Court imposed the sentence on Lee Baker after hearing that the defendant had spent the equivalent of three weeks in custody on remand.
The defendant, of Queen’s Road, committed the offences at the De L’Etang Guest House in Havre des Pas and in the road outside.
Centenier David Webber said that on Saturday 24 March Baker had gone to the guest house with two representatives of the Freedom for Life Ministry, who paid for the 46-year-old to stay there for two nights.
The court heard that just before 6 pm the owner of the guest house was serving drinks behind the bar but refused to serve the defendant a third alcoholic drink.
The court heard that Baker, who identifies as a woman, came across as aggressive and was asked to leave the premises. Baker was complaining that as a resident she had a right to be served.
The police were called and Baker was warned that failing to leave licensed premises was an offence. The defendant was asked to return the guest house room key but refused and walked off.
As the police officer tried to arrest the defendant, Baker ‘became violent, pulled away and started kicking at the police officer’s legs’, the Centenier said. The court was told the defendant continued to struggle and kicked out at the officer, shouting abuse and spitting at the officer’s shoes and towards his face.
But Advocate Sarah Dale, defending, said that Baker did not accept that any kicking out at the police officer was intentional. When asked to leave the premises, the defendant became anxious as all of her possessions were in the guest house room, the lawyer said.
Advocate Dale said the defendant had served the equivalent of three weeks in custody and told the court that Baker had remained out of trouble for a significant period.
In sentencing, the Magistrate, Bridget Shaw, said that she was bearing in mind that the defendant had already spent three weeks in custody. ‘I think that is enough and I don’t think that giving you community service on top of that could be justified.’
She said that the defendant needed to understand there is a requirement on licensees not to serve people they think have had too much to drink. ‘You should have just gone back to your room,’ she said.
