Published: 8/13/2021 6:21:31 PM
A former New Hampshire state senator has filed a notice of appeal with the state supreme court on his convictions of domestic violence, criminal mischief and simple assault charges.
Jeff Woodburn, 56, of Whitefield, was convicted in Coos County in May and sentenced in July to 60 days in jail. He had pleaded not guilty.
Woodburn was accused of slapping a woman and punching her in the stomach, as well as biting her once on the hand, and on another occasion, on the forearm. His lawyer, Donna Brown, had argued that the woman conspired with a mutual friend to develop a list of incidents Woodburn allegedly committed in a plot to scare him and prevent him from leaving her. A prosecutor said that wasn’t true.
In his notice of appeal, Woodburn asks whether the trial judge was wrong or violated his constitutional rights when it failed to give the jury a self-defense instruction and didn’t allow evidence of prior aggression on the part of the alleged victim, among other questions.
Woodburn, a Democrat, served three terms in the Senate. He lost reelection in 2018 to Republican David Starr, of Franconia.