AUGUSTA — A violent encounter between two workers on a paving crew that left one of them with broken bones in his face, in need of surgery and suffering from memory loss and the other facing a charge of aggravated assault moved to the courtroom Thursday and Friday and left the jury in need of more time to reach a verdict.
Stephen T. Bard, 45, is accused to hitting David Buzzell Jr., on Oct. 20, 2017, so hard he broke three bones in Buzzell’s face, requiring reconstructive surgery and leaving him unable to eat solid foods for a month or work for several months, and gave him a concussion that continues to give him problems with his memory.
Bard, of Albion, acknowledged he hit Buzzell, of Gardiner, multiple times but said he acted in self-defense, that Buzzell had “slung” dangerously hot asphalt onto his neck and that made him angry, and that the incident wasn’t an aggravated assault, it was just two men fighting.
The two men, who were working at the time of the incident on a State Paving Inc. crew on Hallowell Road in Chelsea, argued about the amount of water coming from the ride-on pavement roller Bard was operating. Bard said asphalt landed on him, which he believed, but didn’t see, Buzzell had slung at him from a lute, a rake-like metal tool used to spread hot top. He said he climbed off the roller, angry about being hit by the asphalt, and Buzzell was “getting in his face,” yelling at him about using too much water as the crew put down pavement.
Bard said he hit Buzzell and Buzzell went down. He said the two wrestled and fought, and he hit Buzzell multiple times while both of them were on the ground. The two were separated by other workers, and Buzzell said he thought it was over and it was just a matter “of two men fighting.”
He said Buzzell got up and came over to him, still yelling about using too much water, so he stepped back and warned Buzzell he would hit him again if he approached him.
“He kept coming toward me and I hit him,” Bard said. “He was in my face. There were people behind me, so I couldn’t retreat. I used what force was necessary to stop him.”
Buzzell, on the other hand, testified he spoke to but didn’t yell at Bard about using too much water and he never raised his fists, hit Bard or even saw the attack coming.
He said he had his head down when Bard hit him the first time, and looked up to see Bard about to hit him again. He said he doesn’t remember much of what happened after that, though he went back to work, briefly, after the incident that day but then had to call his fiancée to come get him after he vomited, didn’t feel right and was left unable to work.
“I was dazed and confused. After them two hits I was out there in the twilight zone,” Buzzell said. “I knelt down and called Amy, who came and got me. I don’t remember the ride home at all. I don’t remember that night, going to bed.”
Buzzell, at the urging of his fiancée, Amy Dyer, went to the emergency room the next afternoon after his condition remained poor, where it was confirmed he had a concussion, he said, and three broken bones in his face he later had surgery to fix.
After surgery, he said, he was on a liquid-only diet for four to six weeks because he couldn’t chew. He said he was unable to return to work until June 2018 because of symptoms, including memory loss, from what a doctor he saw told him was post-concussion syndrome.
He reported the incident to police the day after the hospital visit, two days after the attack. He said he didn’t report it to police sooner because he was dumbfounded and didn’t know what to do.
Brad Grant, attorney for Bard, told jurors in his closing arguments Buzzell didn’t report the incident immediately because he knew he was at fault for what occurred.
He said his client was in fear of Buzzell attacking him in part because it looked like Buzzell was on drugs and he knew Buzzell had undergone Army combat training.
Grant noted the state needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, in order to convict Bard of aggravated assault, that he intentionally, knowingly or recklessly caused bodily injury to another that created a substantial risk of death or extended convalescence necessary for recovery of physical health. He said Buzzell’s injury did not create a substantial risk of death or an extended convalescence.
Prosecutor Tracy McCarthy, a Kennebec County assistant district attorney, said what Bard did was not self-defense, and what took place was not a fight; it was Bard assaulting Buzzell because he was angry at him.
“He walks over and hits him, then hits him again,” McCarthy said of Bard striking McCarthy. “He’s on the ground and he hits him some more. He’s angry; we heard him admit that. You’re not allowed to hit somebody because they walk up to you, because they yell at you. That’s certainly not self-defense.”
She referred to testimony by one of three doctors who testified in the trial, who said concussions can create a substantial risk of death.
The case is in the jury’s hands now. After closing arguments, jurors spent about two hours deliberating Friday without reaching a verdict before deciding, around 5 p.m., to wrap up for the day and return Monday to deliberate further.
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
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