SANDPOINT — A Sagle man was arrested last Sunday night for allegedly attacking a relative while clutching a knife in a dispute over an automotive battery.

Walter Michael Ford-Bridges IV is charged with aggravated battery, a felony. He made an initial appearance in Bonner County Magistrate Court on Monday, May 23, via videoconferencing with the county jail.

Judge Debra Heise ordered Ford-Bridges held in lieu of $25,000 and appointed a public defender to represent him, court records show. An order barring Ford-Bridges from contacting the alleged victim, a 47-year-old woman, was also entered.

The alleged victim told sheriff’s deputies that Ford-Bridges attacked her at a Talache Road home after she took a battery that he owed her, a probable cause affidavit said. Ford-Bridges, 28, stabbed the tires of her vehicle with a switchblade and struck her with his fist while holding the knife, which deputies believed was used to enhance the impact of the blow, the affidavit said.

The woman believes the blade opened a small cut on her chin. She also reported being attacked as she lay on the ground. A bystander interrupted the blitz, according to court documents.

Ford-Bridges denied there was any sort of physical altercation and attributed the lacerations on the woman’s face and knees to her falling to the ground when she was exiting a vehicle.

A preliminary hearing in the case is pending.