Good Samaritan hit with bottle while trying to help woman

Bail was set at $15,000 for a man accused of assaulting his wife at a busy intersection in west Olympia and hitting a good Samaritan in the head with a liquor bottle.

Jesse Gordon Schofield, 20, appeared Monday in Thurston County Superior Court on one count of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and one count of fourth-degree assault/domestic violence. Arraignment was set for June 28.

Court documents give the following account:

Olympia police responded to a report of a man pushing and punching a female Sunday morning at Cooper Point Road and Black Lake Boulevard.

The caller reported that the man — later identified as Schofield — also was assaulting her husband, who had attempted to intervene.

The husband told police that he had seen Schofield hit the woman several times with a closed fist. When the husband intervened, both Schofield and the woman started hitting him, and she ended up ripping off his shirt.

Schofield held a large glass liquor bottle by the neck and struck the husband in the head twice. The man suffered a cut on his hand, an abrasion on his chest and a lump on his head.

A second citizen also had attempted to stop the assault; no injury was reported for that person.

Schofield’s wife told police that she was not assaulted and that the two were just messing around. Police reported that the wife had refused to cooperate with the investigation of her assault.

Schofield came to Washington about three months ago and has been staying at various local homeless shelters. He has no prior criminal history.

Upon setting bail at Monday’s hearing, Judge James Dixon said that the nature of the allegations — in which two people were assaulted in broad daylight — suggests that Schofield might be inclined to do it again if he were released.

“Mr. Schofield is a danger to our community,” Dixon said. “Our community has the right to be protected.”

This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Good Samaritan hit with bottle while trying to help woman."