Two West Tisbury men were arrested last week in connection with the brutal beating of a man at an August party in West Tisbury.

On Oct. 14 in Edgartown Elliott Tholen, 22, of West Tisbury and William Tholen, 23, also of West Tisbury, were charged with assault, assault and battery with a weapon, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, threat to commit a crime (murder), assault and battery with intent to maim, mayhem, strangling and kidnapping. William Tholen has a prior arrest record, police said. The men were picked up by Edgartown police after West Tisbury police had issued a warrant for their arrest one day earlier.

West Tisbury acting police chief Dan Rossi said this week that the incident, which took place on August 6, took a long time to report and prosecute because the victim, a 23-year-old West Tisbury man, returned to school in Vermont at the end of the summer. And the chief said he suspects the victim may have been afraid to report the incident because he had known both suspects since childhood.

On Oct. 13 police received statements from both the victim and a witness that recounted the attack.

Information in the case released by police last week notes that the victim was led from the party “to a field by the neck and asked for money that was owed to the Tholens’ mother for past rent. When the victim tried to get away, he was tackled and punched repeatedly, held down, strangled, assaulted with a fence post, threatened to be burned with a lit cigarette and stepped on.”

When the witness, who was an acquaintance of the victim, came upon the scene he was told by the Tholens that the victim had walked into a pole. When it became apparent to the witness that this wasn’t the case he offered $100 to the suspects to leave the victim alone, whereupon he was asked for $400. When more bystanders arrived at the scene the victim was let go.

The two men were arraigned in Edgartown district court on Friday, where they pleaded not guilty. Bail was set at $10,000 for William Tholen and $2,500 for Elliott Tholen; both men posted bail. A pretrial conference has been set for today in Edgartown district court.