Alva Review-Courier -

An Alva woman went to the emergency room after an altercation with her next door neighbor.

Court documents show on April 17 about 4:45 p.m. Alva Police Officer William Shahan was dispatched to 20 Locust St. for an assault. The reporting party advised her neighbor had attacked her while she was mowing. When Shahan arrived he met Violet Smith who had blood on her head and face. He saw the blood was coming from her right hand.

Smith told the officer she was outside mowing on the side of her house when her neighbor, Dawn Michelle Gordon, attacked her for no reason. Smith said she was on the west side of her house mowing and picked up a part of a swing set that belongs to Gordon and placed it back into her yard so she could continue to mow.

Smith said Gordon came out of her residence and started yelling and cussing at her about not touching her property or being on her property. Smith tried to ignore Gordon and continued mowing. She said Gordon grabbed the mower and started shaking it and pulled it away from her.

According to Smith, at some point Gordon knocked off Smith’s glasses and took her to the ground. Smith said Gordon started choking her and wrapped her legs around her chest area and squeezed. Smith said while she was on the ground, Gordon bit her thumb causing it to bleed and swell. Smith said she screamed for help but didn’t think anyone heard her.

Shahan stated he saw red marks around Smith’s neck area. Because Smith was visibly shaking and said her chest and ribs hurt, Shahan called for Alva EMS to come check her out.

Shahan went to Gordon’s house to speak with her. Approaching the back of the house, he saw the doors to the residence were standing wide open. He and Woods County Deputy Kyle Fuller began calling out for Gordon. The neighbor to the north said he saw Gordon leave a few minutes earlier, going south from the backyard.

Shahan entered the house to check if Gordon was there, announcing his presence as a police officer. When the officers made it to the front of the house, Gordon was there on her front porch. Shahan asked her to describe what happened. According to the affidavit, Gordon said Smith was out mowing and hitting her fence and messing with her property and then threw a part of a swing set into her yard.

She said when she asked Smith to stop, Smith began yelling and cussing at her and tried to attack her so she defended herself. Gordon said she put Smith in what she called a therapeutic hold and sat on her chest. Gordon said Smith tried to hit her in the face, scratch her and pull her hair, and Smith put her thumb in her mouth so she bit it.

Gordon took Shahan to the backyard to show him a part of the swing set and the location. Shahan states he saw the swing set and the location of the mower by the outside of the fence. He saw the grass at the bottom of the fence on the outside of Gordon’s property did not appear to be disturbed, and the fence did not appear to have been hit over and over as Gordon alleged.

Shahan asked Gordon why she did not call the police and let them handle the situation. She said she did not go get her phone which was inside. He did not observe any injuries on Gordon that would show she was attacked by Smith.

The neighbor wrote a statement that he heard Gordon yelling at someone about being on her property mowing. The other person kept saying they mowed that for several years. The neighbor could hear Gordon telling the other person to get the piece of s---t off her property then heard the other lady start yelling for help, but he could not see the fight.

Gordon was placed under arrest for aggravated assault and battery. She was taken to the Woods County Jail to be booked in. Smith was taken to the emergency room by family to be checked.

On April 18 in Woods County, Dawn Michelle Gordon, 57, of Alva, was charged with a misdemeanor of assault and battery. This crime is punishable by imprisonment up to 90 days or a fine up to $1,000, or both.