PORT ANGELES — Peter A. Norton has been convicted of vehicular assault and second-degree assault for ramming a neighbor with a Jeep Cherokee in west Port Angeles last September, the Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said.
A Clallam County jury found the 61-year-old Port Angeles man guilty of the Class B felonies after a four-day trial that ended Thursday.
Norton will be sentenced this coming Thursday.
Port Angeles police said Norton had been in a verbal altercation with a neighbor last Sept. 22.
The altercation escalated when Norton drove across the oncoming lane of West 18th Street and deliberately struck the man, who was walking on a sidewalk near Volunteer Field, according the affidavit for probable cause.
Witnesses said Norton picked the man off the ground and placed him in the passenger seat of his car, Officer Michael Johnson wrote in an arrest narrative.
The man suffered a broken wrist, cuts on his face and a concussion, police said.
Norton flipped a U-turn and drove the man to Olympic Medical Center despite the urging of bystanders to wait for paramedics.
Officer Zac Moore arrested Norton at the Port Angeles hospital, police said.
At trial, Superior Court Judge Christopher Melly allowed for character evidence to be presented that opined that the victim had been intoxicated, was off of his medication and had jumped on the hood of the vehicle, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney April King said in a news release.
“The jury was unpersuaded by this evidence,” King said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
