COUNTY - Using a chainsaw to scare his ex and her friends out of his driveway when they refused to leave has landed a Watford man on probation for a year.

 That's part of a suspended sentence Winston James Meisner received June 18 on charges of assault with a weapon and property damage. Provincial Court Judge Anne Crawford also ordered him to take counselling and pay nearly $1,100 restitution to cover repairs to two vehicles he sliced with the saw.

 Crown attorney Lloyd Tancock explained that Mr. Meisner, 34, had been in a relationship with a woman, who continued to lived at his residence once they split. On August 22, 2006, she showed up with some friends in two vehicles to retrieve her belongings.

 The group confronted Mr. Meisner in his driveway. One of the men carried a metal pipe. Mr. Meisner refused to give the woman her things and they all argued. The two men demanded the woman's belongings and Mr. Meisner told them to leave. When they refused, he went into a tool shed and started a chainsaw. As the group got into their vehicles, Mr. Meisner swung the chainsaw and cut through the frame of a van near a back window. He then smashed the saw blade through the driver's side window of the second car and sliced along the side of the vehicle as his former girlfriend tried to leave.

 Defence lawyer Franceen Romney said her client recognizes his behaviour was inappropriate but was worried that one of the men was carrying a metal pipe. She joined the Crown in a joint recommendation for the suspended sentence.

 "At the end of the day, he's here to take responsibility," Ms Romney said.

 Mr. Meisner was ordered to stay away from two women involved in the melee, including his ex, while he's on probation. He must submit a DNA sample to the national criminal data bank.

posted on 06/24/08