CALAIS – A 26-year-old Baileyville woman who allegedly held another woman down and then slashed her throat with a beer bottle made her first appearance in 4th District Court on Tuesday.

Melissa Manza was charged with aggravated assault and if convicted could face up to 30 years in prison.

But Manza’s attorney John Churchill of Calais told 4th District Court Judge John Romei that Manza was defending herself. He said the victim hit her from behind with a piece of wood.

Around 2 a.m. Sunday, Manza, her husband, Ralph, and several others were at the Calais home of Chris Guidi when a fight broke out between two male guests. Guidi ordered everyone to leave.

When the victim tried to break up the fight, a court affidavit said, Manza got out of her pickup truck and “broke a beer bottle over [the victim’s] head and then held [the victim’s] hair while she cut her face with the broken glass from the beer bottle.”

The victim was taken to a hospital in Bangor where she underwent surgery. It took more than 100 stitches to close the wound, the affidavit said.

Questioned by police later, those who were present when the fight broke out at the Guidi house reported “not seeing anything,” the court documents said.

When Manza was questioned, there were “inconsistencies” in her story, the court record said. “For example, she said she’d been at the bar and had one kamikaze drink all night while maintaining that she was very intoxicated when whatever happened happened,” the affidavit said.

She then told police she was at Guidi’s house when the fight broke out and when she tried to get involved the victim struck her on the head with a beer bottle. She told police, “she was not afraid, she was not injured and she did not defend herself. She did not touch the [victim] in any way,” the affidavit said.

At her appearance Tuesday, First District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh told the judge that Manza had cut the victim from her ear to the midline of her neck and the victim had to undergo plastic surgery.

Cavanaugh also said the Baileyville woman had an extensive criminal record that began in 1999 and included making false reports and theft. While in jail on some of those charges she smashed a television set. She also was charged with attempted escape and assaulting an officer. In 2003, Manza was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon after she allegedly struck a friend with a shovel. She later was charged with possession of prescription drugs.

But Manza’s attorney told the judge there were numerous witnesses to the incident and that Manza was defending herself after the victim struck her in the head with a two-by-four. “It was a reaction to the attack, it was not premeditated,” Churchill said. He said that the two women were friends, but Cavanaugh said that the victim told him they were not friends.

Churchill said that Manza lived in Baileyville with her husband and was awaiting her Social Security disability and asked the judge not to set bail too high.

Cavanaugh said that Ralph Manza currently was on federal probation. He did not elaborate.

Romei informed Manza that she had been charged with a serious crime and set bail at $10,000 cash or $50,000 real estate. He also imposed numerous conditions including no contact with the victim and her residence.

Outside the courtroom Tuesday, Manza’s husband told anyone who would listen that the victim jumped his wife and said, “I’ll kill you.” He then said they planned to hire a good lawyer who “will get her off.”