Man accused of assaulting homeless man, police officers

An Oak Harbor man is charged with assaulting a homeless man with a leash and biting a police officer.

By Jessie Stensland • September 5, 2020 1:30 am

An Oak Harbor man is accused of assaulting a homeless man with a leash and then biting one police officer and kicking another, according to court documents.

The suspect, 43-year-old Nicholas T. Soller, made news in Sacramento last year when police claimed he intentionally hit a bicyclist with his car and then punched the bicyclist, according to the ABC 10 website.

Soller appeared in Island County Superior Court Sept. 2 and the judge found probable cause existed for the charges of two counts of assault in the third degree, assault in the fourth degree and harassment with threats to kill. The judge approved an anti-harassment protection order that bars Soller from contacting the homeless man.

The judge set Soller’s bail at $7,500.

The incident started with an argument over Soller having his dog off leash in the area of the ball fields on Bayshore Drive Sept. 1. The man said Soller hit him several times with a leash, according to the report written by one of the officers who responded.

The victim had bloody welts on his back and side, the officer wrote.

Soller denies hitting the man and said they got into a fight after the man tried to steal his dog, the report states.

An officer told Soller that he was going to be issued a criminal citation and then he would be released. But while the officer was going to his patrol car to get the paperwork, Soller became agitated and told the officers, “Wait until I see him tomorrow,” referring to the other man, the report states.

The officer then told Soller that he was taking him to jail because of concern that Soller might return and hurt the man. Soller resisted when the officers tried to handcuff him, the report states. He allegedly bit an officer’s arm and kicked another officer in the torso, the report states.

The officers ended up placing him in an immobilizing device known as “the wrap.”

While he was immobilized, Soller threatened to shoot the man he had been fighting with and hang him; he also said he was going to “shave the old man’s face and head and paint it pink,” the officer wrote.