Burnsville Man Who Fractured Woman's Back Gets Four Months in Jail

A Burnsville man will serve less than six months for fracturing a woman's spine during an attack last spring. 

On Friday, Gerald Paul Houle, 40, was booked into the Dakota County Jail to begin his sentence for the assault, which occurred on May 22, 2012.

That morning the Burnsville Police Department was called to an apartment complex on report of a domestic assault. Officers found a woman lying on the hallway floor. The woman said she couldn't feel her legs and thought something might be wrong with her back. She was immediately taken to the hospital. The attending physician confirmed that the woman was suffering from a fractured vertebrae, which appeared to be the result of a recent injury.

Police interviewed the victim from her hospital bed. Officers report that the woman was in agonizing pain throughout the entire statement. They also noted that she had a cut on the right side of her forehead, red marks on her neck, dried blood on her lips and bruises on her body.

The woman said that the incident began the day before, when Houle returned from work around 3:30 p.m. She said he'd been drinking and was in a foul mood. He began berating her, then started to yell, getting close to her face. The woman said that she panicked, bit Houle and scratched his face before fleeing the complex with her children.

When she returned a few hours later, she told her children to wait in the building's community room while she went upstairs to the apartment. When she arrived, the locks were hanging from the doors as if in the process of being changed. Houle was drunk and quickly became enraged. As the argument progressed he went on a rampage, destroying the children's toys and other furniture in the apartment.

Then he wrapped his arms around the woman, picked her up and slammed her to the ground. He ordered her into the bed, then took off his belt, made a noose and put it around her head.

"The way he was acting and talking I thought he was going to choke me to death," the woman reportedly told police.

Houle gave up on the belt, then sat on her chest and squeezed his hands around her neck, hard. He also tried to smother her by placing his hands over her mouth and nose to prevent her from breathing. This happened approximately five times, she said. Whenever she began to struggle, Houle would pull her hair.

Eventually, she was able to break away from him. She ran down the hall with her two children to a neighbor's apartment, then called 911.

Officers also spoke to Houle, who admitted that he had been drinking a pint of vodka. However, he claimed that he'd had only been "wrestling around" with the woman in order to defend himself. 

Houle was charged with third-degree assault, a felony carrying up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, and felony domestic assault.

On Jan. 28, Houle pleaded guilty to third-degree assault. In exchange for the plea, the state dismissed the second charge. Judge Michael J. Mayer sentenced Houle to 145 days in the county jail, with credit for four days already served. He has also been ordered to complete three years of probation, attend Alcoholics Anonymous, and pay restitution to the victim.

Houle has only a few items of note on his criminal record, including convictions for a DWI in 1997 and harassment in 2006.

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