Judge dismisses case against man accused in stabbing incident
A magistrate judge dismissed the case against a man accused in a stabbing that left another man’s intestines protruding from his body.
Charleston police arrested 40-year-old Francis Xavier Montoya on a charge of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in connection with the April 15 incident outside Molly Darcy’s pub on East Bay Street downtown. His attorney, Andy Savage, argued in a court filing that Montoya had the right to protect himself and his friend when 22-year-old Thomas Disser, a Navy sailor in an “alcohol-induced rage,” led an “unprovoked and ruthless attack” on them.
Authorities say Disser yelled and cursed at passersby before the incident. Savage argued that Disser knocked Montoya’s colleague unconscious, before turning his attenion to Montoya, and that Montoya merely stood his ground.
Police arrested Montoya about a half-hour afterward at East Bay and Cumberland streets.
Read more in Friday’s editions of The Post and Courier.
Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or Twitter.com/allysonjbird.
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