A North Carolina man faces an aggravated battery charge in connection with a fight at a bar in Clayton that left one man with a busted jaw.
A news release from the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office says 37-year-old Stephen Higbee was at the Route 76 Road House Bar and Grill on the 1500 block of Highway 76 in Clayton just after midnight Saturday when he got into a fight with another man in the parking lot.
The release says Higbee left the scene before the sheriff’s department arrived. A short distance from the bar, the Clayton Police Department arrested him on unrelated traffic offenses.
Deputies noted that the other man, 40-year-old Clayton resident Kenneth Lunn, appeared to be drunk and antagonistic. Rabun County Emergency Services personnel briefly examined him before asking him to exit the ambulance due to his unruly behavior, the sheriff’s office says.
The owner of the bar told investigators that Lunn’s behavior on the dance floor was inappropriate, and several customers notified the disc jockey. The DJ escorted Lunn from the building and returned inside to calm a group that wanted to fight him in the parking lot.
According to the release, a family member of Lunn’s contacted the sheriff’s office later that morning and told officials that Lunn’s jaw was broken on both sides.
As a result of a follow-up investigation, deputies charged Higbee with battery. He turned himself in to the Rabun County Detention Center.
Sheriff Chad Nichols reminds bargoers that “inappropriate behavior or altercations with other patrons should be immediately reported to law enforcement. Let my deputies sort out what happened instead of taking matters into your own hands.”
Anyone with additional information about the fight on April 6 is encouraged to call the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office at 706-960-9745.
