UI Art Teacher Arraigned On Aggravated Battery Charge

A University of Idaho teacher accused of stabbing a Moscow man has been bound over for arraignment on a charge of aggravated battery.

John Willard LHote, a 50-year-old associate art professor, is charged with stabbing Jose Luis Palacios Feb. 24 during an altercation at Johns Alley, a Moscow tavern.

Palacios, a 25-year-old tutor from Spain, suffered a stab wound to the belly. He testified before Magistrate Patrick Costello that he was talking with a woman when LHote pushed him aside.

“I told him not to push me,” he said. Moments later, Palacios felt pain in his abdomen.

“I looked down, and I saw a blade coming out of my stomach,” Palacios said.

He chased LHote down an alley, catching up to him at a parking lot. Palacios testified he grabbed LHote and told him, “You and I are going to the police.”

LHote allegedly tried to stab him again, said Palacios.

LHote told officers a different story, according to a police affidavit. He said he was talking with a woman at the tavern when a stranger became irritated with him.

LHote told police he left the bar and was followed outside by six men. He got scared, pulled a knife out and cut one of them, according to the affidavit. Costello scheduled LHote, who is free on bail, to enter a plea on Friday.