by Steve Wiandt
Reporter
Akron -- Following a woman's conviction for assaulting an officer after a rock concert, her lawyer claims his client should get probation because she didn't know she was struggling with a sheriff's deputy.
Marilyn Doucet, 30, of Cleveland, was found guilty by a jury Sept. 17 of assault on a police officer, a felony of the fourth degree, and resisting arrest, a misdemeanor.
Doucet will be sentenced on Oct. 15 by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Alison McCarty, according to a release from the office of Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh.
According to the prosecutor, Summit County Sheriff's Deputies attempted to break up a fight between Doucet and a man at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls after a Motley Crue Concert on Aug. 20, 2008.
Doucet first ignored deputies, and then started to swear at Deputy Melissa House, said the prosecutor's office. She then swung at Deputy House, who ducked to avoid the hit. In trying to subdue Doucet, Deputy House's face was scratched and her hair was pulled, said the prosecutor. The defendant was then tased twice before she stopped fighting.
"We're disappointed in the verdict, but we're focusing on the sentencing aspect of the case," said Kevin Butler, co-counsel for the defense.
Butler said around 11:30 p.m. as "thousands of people" were leaving the concert, Doucet "came to the aid" of a young girl she was chaperoning. A man "made extremely suggestive ... inappropriate comments to this young girl," Butler said.
Doucet did not know "that the person who was tackling her to break up the fight was an officer," he said.
Deputy House was wearing a black uniform, Butler said, but "everyone was wearing black -- it was a heavy metal concert," and Doucet was tackled from the side and didn't see who jumped on her. Butler said Doucet is "very remorseful that the person she wound up hitting was an officer ... she's a single mother of four children. She has a steady job. This is her first offense."
"We're going to argue very strongly that [because there was] confusion surrounding the event and the undisputed fact that Marilyn was aiding a young girl, she deserves probation and not a prison sentence," said Butler, who is working with his father, Dennis Butler, in defending Doucet.
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