This lady just might beat John Edwards for biggest douche in the universe. Third degree assault for a SNOWBALL?!WAS it good fun with a snowball or a malicious unprovoked attack with an iceball?
A US jury is deciding the fate of Australian Andrew Thistleton who is accused of throwing a snowball at former co-worker Michelle Oehlert at the Copper Mountain ski resort in Colorado on February 3, 2007.
As snow bucketed down, Mr Thistleton arrived yesterday at the small Summit County Court in Breckenridge in the Colorado Rocky Mountains flanked by his mother, Dr Kim Anderson, and his lawyers.
The 21-year-old Sydney University arts student has pleaded not guilty to serious charges of third degree assault and harassment.
Dressed neatly in a dark suit, he sat quietly during the proceedings.
Ms Oehlert, 22, did not sit in the courtroom and is expected to be called today as a prosecution witness.
If convicted Mr Thistleton, a cross country skiing champion, faces up to 18 months jail in a US prison and could be prevented from working or studying in America.
His legal team is arguing that he only lobbed a snowball playfully and it puffed on the victim's jacket.
But Colorado's Fifth District Deputy District Attorney Michael W. V. Angel told the three women and three men jury that they might be asking ''why are we here? Are we here for a snowball fight?''
''If this was a snowball fight we wouldn't be here,'' he said, adding it was not a case of children throwing snowballs or friends having fun.
''It's not a joke to chuck an iceball,'' Mr Angel said, adding the iceball was packed and filled with ice and it was an ''unprovoked attack on an innocent victim''.
Mr Angel told the court that after Mr Thistleton threw the iceball he and his friends followed Ms Oehlert onto a bus where they allegedly muttered ''go home, f..k off, and you don't belong here''.
''It was malicious and he had intent,'' Mr Angel said.
Mr Angel said Mr Thistleton and Ms Oehlert worked together at the Breeze/Max ski rental store in Copper Mountain (now called Left Lake Rentals) from December 2006 until February 2007.
The court heard the pair had a ''history of animosity and they didn't like each other''.
He said the Australian was ''trying to harass her, trying to annoy her, trying to bother her isn't good fun, it wasn't a joke.''
Mr Angel said Ms Oehlert and her boyfriend were waiting for a bus in the employee parking lot in February when ''she felt something smash into her side''.
Jurors heard Ms Oehlert had broken multiple ribs and lacerated her spleen in an accident the year before and Mr Thistleton was aware of her injuries.
His lawyer, Lisa Moses told the jury that Ms Oehlert was unable to identify who had made the comments on the bus.
She said jurors would hear there were some problems with the co-workers and there was some animosity and they didn't always get along because ''she didn't pull her weight'' and would call in sick.
But they would also hear the co-workers were playful.
She also said all the staff at the ski rental store would take snow off the snowboards and other items and playfully throw snowballs at each other in the store.
''She (Ms Oehlert) was a part of that. She was a part of that environment of what they did,'' Ms Moses said.
Ms Moses said Ms Oehlert ''told us that it (the snowball) didn't actually hurt her right then, it didn't hurt her until later''.
''It was a lob of a snowball and that's what the witness will come in and say...(one would say) they saw it puff on the back of this woman's ski jacket''.
Ms Moses also said the jury would hear about motive. She said in February 2007 Ms Oehlert was no longer working at the ski rental store because she had failed to bring in doctors documents concerning time off she had taken.
She told the court Ms Oehlert allegedly said to a manager in the store ''I'll get their jobs, something to that effect''.
She said the snowball throwing incident was ''playful, nothing malicious, nothing mean, not to harass''.
Ms Moses added that after the incident Mr Thistleton ''said to the police officer if I bothered her I'm happy to apologise that is not an assault, that is not harassment.''
The US jury is expected to hear from witnesses overnight before beginning its deliberations which are expected to conclude today.
Ew, or mincemeat. 
