Rochelle Chow Shuting’s lawyers claimed she was trying to pick up her phone with her leg. They later said she was lifting the leg to regain balance.
Chow intends to appeal against her conviction and sentence.
According to charge sheets, Chow was at the Parkroyal on Pickering hotel when the incident occurred at about 5.30pm on Aug 13, 2017.
She had gone there for a wedding, TODAY reported then, and a security guard was called in to keep an eye on her after she had a dispute with some wedding guests.
TODAY reported that Chow, who had consumed several glasses of wine, managed to get to her car at the hotel’s car park, but was unable to find her way out. She alighted and began screaming.
The security guard then called the police for help as he was unable to contain her. He said she had hit a car and was violent.
When the police arrived, three of them handcuffed Chow’s hands behind her back, court documents stated.
Her mobile phone then dropped on the ground, and Sergeant Muhammad Taufiq Zainudin squatted down to pick it up.
“frivolity” of the defence’s case, and how Chow changed her defence at various stages.
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She pleaded guilty in April 2019, then retracted her guilty plea in 2020 after her defence tendered a mitigation plea.
At this point, Chow filed a sworn statement saying she had been too intoxicated to recall the events at the car park.
But in court she said she could now remember, and claimed that she was trying to pick her phone up from the ground using her right leg.
She then changed her defence again and claimed that she had lifted her right leg while trying to regain her balance.
Defence lawyer Sarbrinder Singh said his client had not conducted her trial in a frivolous manner, and that it was not a case where “it was a totally hopeless defence”.
There were witnesses present who had supported the defence’s case, he said.
In sentencing, the judge said she looked at the harm caused to the victim, which was not as serious as another case used for comparison.
However, she took into account that it was in the context of a somewhat-prolonged police engagement with Chow, in part because she had chosen to drink alcohol to the point of intoxication.
