SANDPOINT — Sentencing is being put on hold for a Bonner County man implicated in a violent street fight in Ponderay last year.

Timothy Grant “Bear” Larson is being given the chance to prove himself in year-long, inpatient drug- and alcohol-treatment program before he is sentenced on a felony assault charge.

District Judge Steve Verby reset Larson’s sentencing for the spring of 2010. Larson is enrolled in the Cross Church & Discipleship Center in Seattle, according to his attorney, Larry Purviance.

“This is exactly what we had hoped would happen,” Purviance said of the postponed sentencing.

The treatment center would provide the court with monthly progress reports and notification if Larson washes out of the program.

Larson, 30, was charged with aggravated battery following the Feb. 29, 2008, fight in which a 49-year-old man was allegedly beaten and stabbed in the abdomen.

Witness accounts of who allegedly wielded the knife clashed and the weapon was never recovered. Adam Rew Carash, 28, was charged with misdemeanor battery and Larson was charged with felony battery.

The victim in the case contends it was Carash who knifed him, although Carash steadfastly refutes the allegation, but admits delivering a knockout punch during the fray.

Larson entered into a plea agreement which reduced the aggravated battery charge to aggravated assault. The agreement proposes a suspended prison term.