A man accused of fracturing a police officer's eye socket during a traffic stop in the Lower Hunter has faced court.
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Tyrone Fernando, 20, was refused bail in Maitland Local Court on Monday after his arrest on Sunday night.
Police said a lone sergeant stopped a car containing Mr Fernando and three others - two women and a 24-year-old man - on Trevor Street in the Maitland suburb of Telarah just after 8.30pm.
Police allege the 20-year-old punched the sergeant on the left side of the face as the officer was trying to arrest him.
Mr Fernando and the 24-year-old allegedly fled the scene.
Police also allege that Mr Fernando then assaulted two more officers when they found and arrested him nearby.
Investigators know the identity of the 24-year-old and are urging him to contact police.
In court on Monday, Mr Fernando did not enter any pleas to the charges leveled at him - two counts each of assaulting a police officer in the execution of their duty without actual bodily harm and resisting an officer in the execution of their duty.
He was also charged with one count each of unlicensed driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, assaulting a police officer in the execution of their duty causing actual bodily harm, escaping police custody and causing grievous bodily harm to a police officer being reckless as to actual bodily harm.
Mr Fernando will face court again on August 19.
Port Stephens-Hunter police commander Superintendent Chad Gillies said there were "grave concerns" for the sergeant's eye, which was still being assessed.
"He's in the good care of the doctors at John Hunter Hospital at the moment," Superintendent Gillies told reporters on Monday morning.
"He is in good spirits, but we obviously have concerns of the nature of the eye injury.
"We now have an officer off the street with a serious facial injury."
It's the latest in a string of unrelated alleged assaults against police in recent weeks.
In one case, a 22-year-old woman was charged after she allegedly injured the knee and elbow of a senior constable at Wamberal on the Central Coast, after she was arrested for returning a positive breath test following a car crash on Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, a 35-year-old man is before the courts accused of injuring two officers - allegedly punching a female senior constable in the face - as he was being arrested over an alleged domestic disturbance at Buff Point last Tuesday night.
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