A Walnutport man has been charged with assaulting his father with a baseball bat while he was asleep.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by patrolman Dean Heffelfinger Jr. of the Lehigh Township Police Department in the case against Thomas Pierce:

At around 1:50 p.m. on March 6, Heffelfinger was dispatched to a home in the 4300 block of Cedar Drive for a domestic in progress.

Police responded and found a man in the front yard limping asking for help.

The man said he was sleeping when he was woken by his son, Pierce, 24, hitting him with a baseball bat.

Heffelfinger opened the front door and called for Pierce, who came out of his room, and Heffelfinger asked him what was going on.

Pierce said that he wasn’t comfortable with his father, and that he thinks when he was young “that his father did stuff to him” and that he’s just had it and snapped and had to take care of it.

Pierce said that he hit him with a baseball bat a few times while he was in his bed.

Heffelfinger took Pierce into custody and placed him in the back of his police vehicle.

Heffelfinger said the man was hit in the leg, stomach and neck.

Pierce faces charges of aggravated assault and harassment.

Pierce is currently incarcerated in the Northampton County Prison in lieu of $50,000 monetary bail, and scheduled to have a preliminary hearing March 27 before District Judge Robert A. Hawke of Walnutport.