JOSEPH – Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested a Joseph man in connection with an Aug. 5 bar fight that preceded a car wreck that sent five people to the hospital and said more arrests are expected.

Dan Martin, 51, was arrested Friday on a Wallowa County misdemeanor warrant on charges of assault IV, intimidation II, disorderly conduct II, harassment and criminal trespass II. He was transported to Umatilla County Jail and is now free on bail.

“Mr. Martin was the primary instigator of the incident, the fight,” Wallowa County Sheriff Fred Steen said Tuesday.

Martin is the husband of Joseph Mayor Peggy Kite-Martin, who was not present during the incident.

“Pouring alcohol over stress is never a good idea, especially in a bar situation …,” Kite-Martin said later. “I was surprised there was only one arrest. There was a lot of hitting going on.”

Steen, who has reviewed the investigation report of Deputy John Campbell, said the fight was precipitated when Martin made some racially-related remarks to a black man in the bar at Shooter’s, according to witnesses.

“There may be some charges against some people in the crash,” Steen said. “Obviously, alcohol played a part in the accident, we believe … alcohol played a part in the fight.”

Oregon State Police Sgt. Larry Graves declined to comment on the results of OSP’s crash investigation, as it had been passed on to Wallowa County District Attorney Mona Williams.

According to an OSP news release, five persons had left the bar following the fight at Shooters in a Chrysler Sebring four-door. Deputy John Campbell discovered the crash near milepost five of the Wallowa Lake Highway. Campbell found the car about 100 feet up a driveway with five injured men inside.

Enterprise ambulance responded and transported two passengers, Lawrence Puckett Jr., 31, from Arlington, Texas, and Stacy D. Williams, 35, from Bonney Lake, Wash., with non-life threatening injuries to Wallowa Memorial Hospital.

The driver, Brian B. Beauloleil Jr. 34, of La Grande, and passengers Damon Lee Stevens, 32, of La Grande, and center rear passenger Michael Lee Williams, 26, of Redmond, Wash. were flown by air ambulance to Sacred Heart Regional Medical Center in Spokane, Wash., with critical injuries.

A Sacred Heart Spokesman would not release information on the condition of anyone in the crash.

Sheriff Steen said that his office doesn’t have the manpower to monitor every bar to see if they are abusing their liquor license by over-serving to intoxicated patrons. “If certain bars become problem bars, I’m going to do everything I can to get it stopped,” Steen said.

The report from the incident at Shooter’s has been passed on to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, he said.