The Port Townsend woman accused of assaulting her husband with a hatchet while he slept is claiming self-defense.

Anna Young was arrested late Tuesday afternoon and jailed for first-degree assault for the alleged attack. Authorities claim she told her husband he was dreaming when she started hitting him on the head with the blunt end of a hatchet early Tuesday morning at their home on 14th Street.

Young, 59, made her first court appearance Wednesday morning via a video link from the county jail in Port Hadlock.

Standing at her side was attorney Scott Charlton. 

"This is a case involving self defense," he told Superior Court Judge Keith Harper.

"This is a woman who is living in fear and she was defending herself," Charlton said.

Charlton said that Young had been assaulted, and what happened Tuesday had followed "two years of abuse."

The attorney noted that Young had called 911 repeatedly in the past, and claimed that Monday night, her husband had told her if she ever called 911 again "she would be hurt very, very badly."

Prosecuting Attorney James Kennedy noted that Young had turned herself in to Port Townsend police but also claimed to be the victim of a domestic violence assault. She then declined to give a statement.

"This is still a case where investigation is ongoing," Kennedy told the judge and Young's attorney.

"The state is looking at possibly more serious charges here. There's  probably a lot more to the story than is contained in the probable cause statement," he said.

The prosector noted that it didn't appear that Young had a criminal history, but also noted that she attacked her husband in the middle of the night without provocation.

"The facts of this case are extremely disturbing, extremely violent," Kennedy said.

He asked that bail remain at $100,000. Kennedy noted that Young was a Chinese national and asked that she be ordered to turn over her passport and sign an extradition waiver.

"I would consider her a flight risk," he said.

Charlton, however, noted that Young has been a Washington state resident for 21 years and her mother and siblings live in the Mill Creek area. She has been a Port Townsend resident since she got married two years ago.

Charlton noted that Young has medical issues and had injuries that needed medical attention. He added that she also had a heart condition with a prescheduled appointment.

Young held her hand at her chest throughout her short court appearance,  clutching the top of her orange jail uniform and occasionally coughing; she then asked to sit down on a bench in the jail 15 minutes into the hearing.

Charlton said Young was insulted by the assertion that she was a flight risk because of her heritage.

"She's not a risk to flee," Charlton said, and the attorney asked that she be released on her own personal recognizance.

Harper acknowledged that the court had only one side of the story, but the information already in hand depicted "a very serious, unprovoked offense."

The judge said Young's risk of flight was somewhat mitigated by the fact she has family living in the Puget Sound area, and Harper said he would set bail at $50,000, cash or bond.

Her arraignment on the charges was set for Friday, Nov. 12.

In court papers, authorities alleged Young repeatedly struck her husband with the blunt end of a hatchet, which was still in its sheath, until he ran out of the bedroom.

The husband said Young would not let him get to the phone and kept hitting him with the hatchet when he tried to call 911.

He told police he retreated to a bathroom, but his wife continued to attack him. He then ran to the kitchen, grabbed a cast-iron skillet, and hit Young on the head.

The husband escaped to the garage where he grabbed a hammer and then went to a neighbor's house.

Emergency dispatchers were called when someone in the couple's 14th Street neighborhood reported a suspicious man dressed in a T-shirt and shorts who was knocking at their door. 

The caller said the man had a hammer in his hand.

The husband drove himself to the hospital, where an emergency-room doctor at Jefferson Healthcare determined he had a skull fracture, several lacerations to the back of his head, and a severe laceration on an ear.

One of the man's ears was split in half and will require plastic surgery, according to a police report on the attack.

The victim, 74, also had a middle finger with a compound fracture, which police believe happened when the man raised a hand to try to block the hatchet from hitting him.

Young fled the scene in her car and was later found and arrested after police tried without success to call her on her cell phone.