CORINTH — A 36-year-old Vershire man is free on $35,000 bail after pleading not guilty to a charge he punched a neighbor and smashed her windshield with a chainsaw after she asked him to move his truck, according to court records.

Patrick Southworth pleaded not guilty on Monday in Orange Superior Court in Chelsea to a felony charge of aggravated assault following his arrest Saturday evening.

According to an affidavit by Vermont State Trooper Elisabeth Plympton, Southworth began yelling at Barbara Cota, 52, when she asked him to move his truck away from her camper. Southworth then rammed her car twice with a car he was driving on Eagle Hollow Road, got out of his car, and slapped and punched Cota, the affidavit said. He also “grabbed a chainsaw from his vehicle and put the blade through the windshield” of Cota’s car, the affidavit said.

Cota suffered visible bruises and was taken to Cottage Hospital in Woodsville after the incident, police said.

Southworth made bail both for the aggravated assault charge and on a fugitive from justice petition related to a drug charge in Grafton County, according to Orange County Deputy State’s Attorney George Hasselback. Southworth is due back in court in Chelsea on the fugitive petition on Oct. 13.

He also is due in Orange Superior Court next week on an unrelated charge that he killed a bear out of season.

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