FARMINGTON — A Franklin County jury on Tuesday found a New Vineyard man guilty of puncturing a plow truck tire on March 20 during a dispute over snow left at the end of a driveway on Barker Road in New Vineyard.
Kirk Hamel, 42, was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief in a one-day trial at the Franklin County Superior Court, according to court documents.
Justice William Stokes ordered Hamel to pay a $1,000 fine. With surcharges and fees, the amount it increased to $1,220, the documents said.
Hamel also was ordered to pay $499.50 in restitution to Nile Logging and Leasing of New Vineyard.
Franklin County sheriff’s Lt. David Rackliffe said in March that a dispute arose between a snowplow truck driver and snow shovelers when the driver lifted the wing plow but left the plow down before he got to a shoveled driveway on Barker Road so he didn’t push snow into a driveway. The plow left about three scoops of snow at the end of the driveway, he said previously.
People who shoveled the driveway began to shovel the snow back into the road, he said.
Truck driver Doug Nile of Anson, whose family business has the contract to plow New Vineyard’s roads, told them they couldn’t put the snow in the road.
A heated dispute broke out and Nile told police he saw a person with a black-handled object in his hand duck under the truck, Rackliffe had said. It was determined the tire had been punctured with what appeared to be a Philips screwdriver, he said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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