CAMPBELL — A Campbell woman will be sentenced on Aug. 1 after being convicted during Campbell Municipal Court’s third jury trial in more than 50 years.

Nicole Carter, 49, of 211 Hamrock Drive, was found guilty of misdemeanor assault on Wednesday in the courtroom of Judge Patrick P. Cunning, after jurors deliberated for just over an hour.

The case stems from an August 2022 incident in which Carter attacked a supervisor for Republic Services, the company that manages garbage collection in Campbell.

According to a police report, Carter was in the process of renovating her home. The supervisor had repeatedly warned her about leaving construction refuse at the curb because Republic’s residential services does not handle those kinds of materials.

On Aug. 11, the supervisor told Carter that she would have to clean up the glass from a broken door left at the curb.

The report states that Carter first called Republic’s office and yelled at someone on the phone before approaching the supervisor’s car, opening the door, and hitting him on the arm. The supervisor filed a report with Campbell police and the case landed in Cunning’s court.

Law Director Brian Macala, who prosecuted the case, said the supervisor had made great efforts to work with Carter, sometimes even removing some materials personally, outside his responsibilities for Republic.

Macala said the supervisor had done everything possible to calm the situation, shy of driving away, but noted that Carter had placed a mirror up against the vehicle which the man would have had to move before he could leave. Carter attacked him before he could do so.

“Someone’s doing a public service for the community, managing municipal garbage removal, and personally I think the way she handled it was completely inappropriate,” he said. “She elected to take a violent action and that’s why I prosecuted the case.”

Macala said jury trials at the municipal court level are uncommon because most cases are settled or pleaded down before they reach the judge.

“We went through the pretrial processes and the state made several attempts to settle the case,” Macala said. “She made it clear she would not accept any proposal to bargain the case, and it’s her right to demand a jury trial — so that’s what we did.”

He said the case took almost a year to reach trial because Carter fired two defense attorneys before settling on one delegated by the court.

Macala said a first-degree misdemeanor like Carter’s is punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, but Carter’s sentence will be well below that threshold.

“I’m not going to ask for anything close to that and I can’t imagine the judge would impose such a thing,” he said.

dpompili@vindy.com