Melissa Susan Vines
By Becky Long
Publisher
A Brasstown woman accused of using her car as a weapon faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon and resisting a public officer.
Melissa Susan Vines, 66, lives at the residence, Royal Oaks Trail in Brasstown, where the incident occurred on Thursday afternoon, May 5.
Blue Ridge Mountain EMC worker Christopher Tyler Hill was clearing brush from a driveway and reported he was cursed by Vines and struck on his right shoulder by the car as it drove by, according to Sheriff Mark Buchanan.
As far as injuries, the sheriff said “Luckily Hill was not injured at all.”
Vines denied responsibility for striking Hill. She provided a cell phone video to investigating officers Chris Moral and Nick Queen that she indicated would prove her innocence, according to Buchanan.
It did not, according to the report.
Buchanan said when officers reviewed the video, it showed Vines turning her steering wheel toward Hill as she drove past him.
“Vines appeared upset with the work Blue Ridge Mountain EMC was doing by clearing right-of-way brush in the area with a helicopter,” Buchanan noted.
As she was being arrested, Vines was told to put her hands behind her back to be handcuffed, but refused to comply.
“She physically resisted being handcuffed to the point she ended up on the floor of her house,” Buchanan said in a news release.
After her arrest, Vines was transported to Clay County Detention Center where she was given a $5,000 unsecured bond and released.