Authorities: ‘Bad blood’ leads to alleged barroom assault

Three individuals arrested after an alleged barroom attack in Fortine last month pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the assault in Lincoln County District Court on Feb. 24.

Haylee Nicole Price, 29, and brother* Chase Adam Price, 24, both pleaded not guilty to felony counts of aggravated assault. Christopher David Ibach, 25, Haylee Price’s husband, also pleaded not guilty to felony aggravated assault and tampering with a witness or informant. All three hail from Fortine.

In an affidavit, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Robert Sayler said the attack occurred about midnight Jan. 12 after years of “bad blood” between the Ibachs and the victim.

Responding to a report of a fight involving multiple people at Jerry’s Bar about 12:24 a.m., Sayler recalled finding the victim seated and trying to stanch the bleeding from a bloody nose.

The victim described getting ambushed by Ibach, who head-butted him in the face, according to the affidavit. Haylee and Chase Price attacked him later, while he was trying to get cleaned up in the men’s bathroom, court documents said.

Sayler reviewed the security footage, which corroborated the victim’s story, according to the description provided in the court documents. In the film, Sayler saw Ibach walk up to the victim and knock him to the floor.

Ibach then turned around and strode away with his hands in the air, Sayler wrote.

In the film, the victim’s significant other helps him off the floor and into the bathroom. A few minutes later, the video captured Haylee and Chase Price push into the bathroom and continue the assault, Saylor wrote in the affidavit.

A witness told Sayler she saw the Prices slamming the victim’s head against the toilet and urinal, punching him all the while, court documents said. Sayler documented the blood splatter left in the bathroom after the attack with a camera as part of his investigation.

The video also captured a good Samaritan push Chase Price out of the bathroom. He had lost his hat in the attack, according to Sayler, which was later recovered by law enforcement and taken into evidence.

In the final moments of the surveillance footage, Ibach is shown yelling at the bartender and can be heard instructing her not to call the authorities, according to Sayler’s affidavit.

The trio fled the scene before authorities arrived, court documents said.

The victim was later hospitalized for a severely broken nose and possibly a concussion, Sayler wrote.

On Jan. 17, Sayler spoke with the victim again by phone. The victim told authorities he felt his life was in danger during the attack in the restroom.

The assault came after years of receiving death threats from his assailants, the victim told Sayler. He was threatened with being shot, stabbed and “put … in the ground,” the victim said, according to court documents.

Ibach’s aggravated assault charge carries with it a possible punishment of 20 years behind bars and a fine of up to $50,000. For directing the bartender not to report the alleged attack, Ibach received the tampering charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

Haylee and Chase Price both face up to 20 years in state prison and a potential $50,000 fine.

All three are scheduled back in Lincoln County District Court for omnibus hearings in April with pre-trial conferences scheduled for June. Were the cases to go to trial, they would occur in July.

*This article has been updated to reflect the parties’ relationships.