PORTLAND (AP) – A Portland police officer faces up to a year in jail after being charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly head-butting a homeless man last summer.

A Cumberland County grand jury indicted Cong Van Nguyen for the Class D crime on Friday. Nguyen has been placed on leave with pay while the charge is pending. No trial date has been set.

The charge stems from a complaint last August in which Peter Colthart, 27, claimed that Nguyen angrily confronted him when he walked in front of the officer’s cruiser and then jumped up and hit him in the mouth with his head.

Colthart filed a complaint with the department after getting the names and phone numbers of three witnesses who backed up his version of events.

Portland Police Chief Tim Burton said police investigated the claim and forwarded the findings to the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office. District Attorney Stephanie Anderson said she is not required to take misdemeanor charges to a grand jury, but does in sensitive cases like this one.

Burton said that Nguyen could be disciplined professionally following on an internal affairs investigation. Nguyen also faces the suspension or loss of his right to work as a police officer by the Maine Criminal Justice Academy board of trustees, which will review the case whether he is convicted or not.

Nguyen, a refugee from Vietnam when he came to Portland in 1975 at age 5, was the first Asian officer on the department when he was hired in 1997.

Colthart was convicted of trespassing at a 2004 rally with first lady Laura Bush in Auburn. Earlier this month, he was charged with assault, reckless conduct and terrorizing after authorities said he shoved Portland rescue workers and threw hot coffee at one of them.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, https://www.pressherald.com