A 44-year-old Oak Harbor woman is accused of whacking her boyfriend on the head with a baseball bat because he tore up a gift certificate, according to court documents.

Sherry Gordon pleaded not guilty in Island County Superior Court Jan. 5 to a single count of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, a domestic violence charge.

Oak Harbor Police Officer Jennifer Rutledge investigated the case after receiving a report that a 53-year-old man had been hit in the head with a baseball bat at an E. Whidbey Avenue apartment.

The officer found the man, covered in blood, sitting outside in the snow. He had a deep, jagged laceration on the back of his head, the report states.

The alleged victim said he and Gordon got into an argument over a gift certificate for food. He said he decided to end the fighting by ripping up the certificate. He claimed Gordon grabbed a baseball bat and hit a lamp, then started hitting him, the report states.

The man admitted he tried to “choke her out” to stop her from hitting him.

But Gordon claimed she acted in self defense. She said she didn’t hit the man until after he started choking her, the report states. The officer photographed marks on her neck.

Gordon told the officer that she suspects her boyfriend has “another woman on the side” even though he has AIDS and hepatitis, Rutledge wrote.

On Jan. 7, a government employee reported seeing Gordon and the man sitting next to each other at an apartment, according to court documents. A court order barred Gordon from having contact with the man.

At a Jan. 12 hearing, Island County Superior Court Judge Vickie Churchill found that Gordon had violated a no-contact order and had her taken into custody in lieu of $10,000 bail.

If convicted of the charge, Gordon could face from three to nine months in jail under the standard sentencing range.