Yasmin Raghoobar sentenced for serious assaults of cop, paramedic

Police pulled a gun and a taser on a young Central Queensland woman armed with a knife at a park - but it was what she did to a cop after they got to the hospital that was truly disgusting.

Yasmin Yuvelina Laxmi Raghoobar was sentenced in Gladstone Magistrates Court this week.

A Central Queensland woman who seriously assaulted a police officer and a paramedic during a series of crimes, has been sentenced.

Yasmin Yuvelina Laxmi Raghoobar, 20, pleaded guilty in Gladstone Magistrates Court on Wednesday to nine charges - serious assault of a police officer, serious assault of an ambulance officer, possessing a knife in public, obstructing police in public while adversely affected, evasion, entering dwelling and commit (DV offence), wilful damage (DV offence), and two counts of obstructing police.

The court heard Raghoobar’s offending started on the night of October 24 last year, when she went to a two-storey townhouse and, from the front yard, yelled at a male occupant on the first floor there.

Raghoobar, who was with a male co-offender, then picked up a brick and she threw it - hitting and damaging a security screen close to where the occupant was standing.

The court was told the occupant armed himself with a crowbar due to concerns about the male co-offender holding onto what appeared to be a knife.

The occupant and the co-offender yelled “back and forth” at each other and ultimately the latter got up to the top of the staircase where the occupant “kicked out” at him, the court heard.

While the co-offender was doing this, Raghoobar was “encouraging him”, the court was told.

Police arrived and spoke to all involved but Raghoobar became “increasingly uncooperative” with officers and she was detained.

She did not comply with police commands and tried to push past a constable.

Police, noticing Raghoobar was affected by alcohol, had to physically restrain her, take her to the ground and handcuff her.

The court heard that on a latter occasion in November, Raghoobar was at a park when she “called the police on herself.”

When police arrived at the park, Raghoobar held a knife behind her back and approached them.

Officers issued a firearm and a taser while asking Raghoobar multiple times to show her hands.

She declined to do so and started walking away from police while still holding the knife behind her back.

Raghoobar eventually obeyed police directions, dropped the knife and was arrested.

She was subject to an emergency examination and while being walked to an ambulance, she threw herself on the ground.

She declined to get up multiple times.

Police walked her to the ambulance and she was placed on a stretcher.

Gladstone Courthouse.

While a paramedic was sitting next to Raghoobar in the back of the ambulance en route to hospital, she touched them with her hands and was advised not to.

Raghoobar continued to touch the paramedic and then tried to use her feet to do the same.

She was warned multiple times not to, and the paramedic later told police she thought Raghoobar was going to kick her “as a result of her (Raghoobar’s) actions.”

Then at Gladstone Hospital, Raghoobar was sitting in the emergency room, waiting to be seen by hospital staff.

She licked her hand and immediately wiped her saliva on a police officer’s arm, the court heard.

Raghoobar then said to the constable: “If I wanted to lick you any more bro, you’d have a lot more trust me - I’m f***ing not as dirty as you think I am.”

Then in December, police responded to a report that Raghoobar was “driving into gutters”.

Yasmin Yuvelina Laxmi Raghoobar.

Police found her and approached her vehicle from behind, activating lights and sirens, but Raghoobar did not stop.

Police then phoned her and she answered.

She was told to pull over but she didn’t.

The court heard Raghoobar had a one-page traffic history and no criminal history.

Solicitor Jun Pepito said Raghoobar was currently pregnant and her offending had only started after a traumatic incident caused her mental health to go “downhill.”

Mr Pepito said Raghoobar had moved from Gladstone to live in Rockhampton where she got work at a breeding kennel, but she was currently “taking a break” from employment.

The court heard Raghoobar suffered from anxiety and depression, and she was receiving medical assistance and counselling which was ongoing.

Prior to imposing penalty, Magistrate Mary Buchanan noted that during the knife incident, there was potential for disastrous consequences.

Ms Buchanan placed Raghoobar on 20 months’ probation and ordered she perform 40 hours of unpaid community service.

For the evasion offence, Raghoobar was fined $8065 and disqualified from driving for two years.

No convictions were recorded.

The court heard that Raghoobar’s co-offender had already been sentenced and his crimes were not as serious as hers.