PORT ANGELES — An arraignment hearing for a Forks man charged after a Jan. 18 incident that left a Forks police officer hospitalized was postponed Friday for lack of a language interpreter.
Walter B. Martin-Perez will instead be arraigned on charges of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Clallam County Superior Court.
Martin-Perez, 23, of Forks, is accused of backing a 1996 Ford Explorer into a patrol car driven by Officer Michael Gentry at the Evergreen 76 gas station, then fleeing on foot.
Gentry broke his left wrist and lower left leg while tackling Martin-Perez in the gas station parking lot.
Gentry had three surgeries at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to repair his shattered tibia.
Forks Mayor Bryon Monohon said Gentry was expected to return home today or Monday.
Forks Police Administrator Rick Bart has said Gentry’s recovery will take at least four months.
Martin-Perez, who fled into the darkness after Gentry was injured, was arrested in the Forks area Jan. 20.
He is being held in the Clallam County jail on $10,000 bail.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge George L. Wood reset the arraignment after a court-appointed Spanish interpreter failed to show up for Friday’s hearing.
Gentry, a fourth-year Forks police officer, had stopped Martin-Perez for driving erratically through Forks.
The deadly weapon listed in the second-degree assault charge is Martin-Perez’s SUV.
