A Vancouver man appeared Friday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of assaulting a man in December after the victim told him to stop being rude to a woman at Icehouse Bar and Grill.
Ira A. Linson, 29, faces a charge of first-degree assault at his Jan. 10 arraignment.
Judge Barbara Johnson held him on $50,000 bail and appointed Vancouver attorney Steven Rucker to defend him against the charge.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu showed the judge photographs of the victim’s injuries. One photograph showed long jagged cuts around the victim’s left eye, which was swollen shut. He also had cuts on his forehead and left cheek.
“This appears to be a stranger-on-stranger attack,” Vu said. He argued for a higher bail to provide more protection for the community.
Rucker said he disagreed with Vu’s characterization of the attack because, affording to a court affidavit, the victim interfered in a private conversation between Linson and the woman.
The victim, age 23, said he was sitting on the patio of the bar, 7804 N.E. Highway 99, on Dec. 22 when he overheard Linson talking rudely to a woman, court documents say. The victim said he confronted Linson and told him stop speaking to her that way. Linson stood up and struck the victim in the face with an unknown object, which immediately sliced open the left side of the victim’s face and caused a heavy amount of bleeding, according to the affidavit.
After the assault, Linson fled the scene in a small white pickup, witnesses said in the affidavit.
Emergency responders responded to the scene at 1:38 a.m. and took the victim to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, where he had to undergo emergency surgery. He was treated and released the same day, a hospital spokesperson said.
A few days after the incident, Clark County sheriff’s investigators showed the victim a photo montage of suspects, and the victim identified a photo of Linson as his attacker, according to the affidavit.
Linson turned himself in Thursday at the sheriff’s West Precinct station after investigators repeatedly tried to reach him via phone.
He has a criminal history of fourth-degree assault, third-degree escape and multiple times when he failed to appear at court hearings, according to court documents.
