Police: Possible Domestic Violence Victim Also Defendant

Racine police say a 28-year-old woman is charged with obstruction and resisting an officer after possibly being a victim of domestic violence.

Heather Paquin, of Caledonia, was charged Tuesday in Racine County Circuit Court with one misdemeanor count each of obstructing an officer and disorderly conduct, domestic abuse assessments. If convicted, she faces up to a year in jail and/or up to $11,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint, Racine police were called Sunday to a residence in the 2200 block of Illinois for a report of domestic violence. When officers arrived, they noted the home was in disarray, with broken items on the floor and a white towel in the bedroom with blood on it. Parties who might have been involved in the incident were not present.

Police say the photographed the scene and when they finished, another officer had Paquin in custody. She was "soaking wet" and smell strongly of intoxicants when she was taken into custody and placed in the back of a squad car for transport to the hospital to get medically cleared for jail. 

When officers arrived at Wheaton Franciscan St. Mary's, Paquin was facing backward in the seat and managed to slip her right hand from the handcuffs. When police helped her out of the squad, she went limp and fought the officers when they attempted to get her inside, the complaint reads.

Paquin continued to strike out at officers so she was placed in a wheelchair to make it easier for police to get her inside. Even though she was handcuffed to the chair, police say she kept trying to kick them and head-butt them until finally she tipped the chair over and struck her head on the floor.

The defendant shouted several expletives at police while her wound was treated and she was restrained to a hospital bed. She spit at one of the officers, the complaint reads, before she was sedated and the blood draw was completed. When she was medically cleared, Paquin was transported to the Racine County Jail where she remains on a $250 cash bond.

She will next be in court on Oct. 10 for a pre-trial conference.