Owens v. Commonwealth

STEINFELD, Judge.

Appellant Ethel Owens, a 69-year-old schoolteacher of forty-eight years’ experience, was adjudged guilty of assault and battery of a high school girl. She has appealed from the judgment, claiming only that the trial court erred in not instructing the jury that KRS 161.180 applies. We reverse.

The teacher had been warned of threats by certain pupils to injure her; wherefore, she carried a “sneeze gun”, a small pencil-*828like device which, when activated, discharges a substance which causes temporary eye irritation to the person affected.

On the day preceding the alleged assault,…