La Cañada man arrested for biting off piece of brother-in-law’s ear

A La Cañada Flintridge man is accused of taking a page out of Mike Tyson’s playbook – biting off a piece of another man’s ear during a fight.

Ken Hosoda, 26, was arrested on suspicion of mayhem -- disabling, disfiguring or otherwise maiming a victim during an assault – for his role in a domestic dispute Saturday afternoon, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

When sheriff’s deputies and paramedics responded to a call of a family disturbance at a home on the 1800 block of Foothill Boulevard at 3:50 p.m. Saturday, they found a 33-year-old man waiting in the front yard, bleeding profusely from the ear and with a dime-sized piece of his ear bitten off.

The man, who is Hosoda’s brother-in-law, was taken to Verdugo Hills Hospital along with the severed portion of his ear in hopes that doctors could reattach it, said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Richard Bodmer.

Shepherd said Hosoda and the victim offered similar accounts of the altercation. The man pushed Hosoda during a dispute, and Hosoda grabbed him, pulled him close and bit a piece of his ear off. Deputies do not know what caused the fight, Shepherd said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Meadows said the incident stood out.

“We don’t get too many mayhem arrests,” he said. “You don’t see that charged too much.”

Hosoda is being held at the Crescenta Valley Sherriff’s station on $100,000 bail in advance of his initial court appearance, according to county booking records.

--Daniel Siegal, Times Community News

Twitter: @ValleySunDan