A Jackson man pleaded not guilty Thursday to allegations he beat Wilson resident Brent Owen so badly in November that Owen suffered multiple facial fractures and bleeding on the brain.

Joshua Anders Rae, 25, appeared for an arraignment hearing before 9th District Judge Nancy Guthrie, who agreed to allow him to travel to Idaho this weekend for a wedding and to Haiti for four weeks with a church group.

Rae’s attorney, Robert Horn, asked that Guthrie end a requirement that Rae report to the Teton County Jail each morning for an alcohol test, saying Rae had never missed a test and never tested positive.

After hearing from prosecutor Steve Weichman, Guthrie told Rae he must continue with the testing when he is not otherwise permitted to leave Jackson.

Weichman said a substance-abuse evaluator found in December that Rae is not addicted to alcohol despite Rae’s “checkered past.” He said Rae’s continued testing will ensure that nothing like what Rae is accused of doing happens again.

“The facts of this case — this case alone — make you wonder how the defendant cannot have an alcohol problem,” Weichman said.

Rae made it clear at his initial appearance that he had not been drinking, Weichman said. Horn said then that Rae had been drinking root beer on the night of his alleged fight with Owen.

“But there is evidence that alcohol was a factor in the things that he is accused of doing — significant evidence, first of all. Second of all, the defendant has a prior history for MUI and minor in possession,” Weichman said. “All of this was already traversed in the lower court when he tried to have the terms lifted then.”

Ninth Circuit Judge Timothy C. Day sent the case to Guthrie’s court after finding at a hearing Feb. 11 that there was enough evidence to show probable cause.

Owen, 25, spent about three weeks in the hospital after the alleged beating early Nov. 28 in the alley behind the Town Square Tavern. According to court documents, Owen suffered 27 fractures to the left side of his face and head and a subdural hematoma, or bleeding on the brain. Police Detective Michelle Weber testified during a preliminary hearing last month that Owen initially was in a natural coma and then was put in a drug-induced coma by doctors treating the subdural hematoma.

At last month’s hearing, Weber said two of Rae’s friends told her Rae and Owen went outside to fight after a verbal altercation at a shuffleboard table. Owen does not remember anything about the verbal altercation or a fight with Rae, he has said.

Rae told Guthrie he wasn’t sure when he might go to Haiti, which was hit Jan. 12 by a magnitude-7 earthquake. He said he’d be helping to install a water purification system.

“I just want to go down there and help out,” Rae said.

If convicted of felony aggravated assault and battery, Rae could face up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.