Daughter of German countess pleads guilty to assault, battery
Posted on Saturday, February 11, 2006
A Madison County woman pleaded guilty to six charges in Washington and Madison counties related to pinning her mother, a German countess, against a picnic table with a car, and stealing money and property from her in 1999.
Raswitha Elisabeth Meerscheidt-Hullessem, also known as Lisa Hackney, 51, is being deported to Canada because she has received credit for time served in the United States and Canada on the Madison County charges of failure to appear, first-degree battery aggravated assault and theft of property.
She pleaded guilty Friday in Washington County Circuit Court to those charges and Washington County charges, which were theft of property for stealing $1,000 from her mother via a forged check and failure to appear in court on that charge.
She was sentenced to 15 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction on the Madison County charges, with all but 23 months of that time suspended. She was sentenced to 10 years in the ADC on the Washington County charges, with all but 22 months of that time suspended. Both of those sentences run concurrently.
She received credit for 23 months served in jail and will be deported, said Billy Allred, deputy prosecutor in Madison County. He said she had served time in Canada since March 2004 on the Madison County charges.
Hackney reportedly pinned her mother, German Countess Gerda von Meerscheidt-Hullessem, against a picnic table with her car in November 1999 in Madison County.
Hackney’s arrival in Madison County was the culmination of an extradition process that had taken place since March 2004 involving authorities in the U.S. and Canada. It took so long, Allred said, because of her Canadian citizenship.
Hackney had been convicted in Canada on charges of cheating people out of money for a bogus writing workshop. She had gotten out of jail, Allred said, before the extradition process started.
In 1999, Allred said, Hackney had been in probate court on her mother’s estate while the elderly woman was in Germany. On Nov. 12, 1999, Hackney reportedly picked up her mother and her mother’s boyfriend from an area airport. When the three arrived back at the countess’s home, Hackney pinned the countess against a picnic table with her car.
Hackney was arrested a few days later, but fled Arkansas before the case went to trial. The countess reportedly suffered a crushed pelvis after the incident and has since returned to Germany.
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