FREEPORT, Texas -- A Freeport police officer took a licking this week -- literally.

A suspect was charged with felony assault of a public servant after allegedly licking Sgt. Jay Newton on the face early Wednesday.

Freeport's police chief said say Ryan Halverson, 18, was picked up for public intoxication after he was spotted beating on car windows and breaking beer bottles outside a Dollar General Store on Brazosport Boulevard.

Sgt. Newton was searching Halverson at the jail when the suspect allegedly became beligerent and refused to cooperate.

BRAZORIA COUNTY SHERIFF

Ryan Halverson

That's when Halverson leaned over and licked the officer's face, according to Freeport Police Chief Jeff Pynes.

"We encourage people not to lick our police officers," Pynes told The Facts newspaper in Brazoria County. "We want you to like them, not lick them."

Pynes said they are taking the incident seriously because "you never know what people are carrying in their saliva."

"Anytime someone puts their hands on our officers -- or tongue in this case -- we take it very seriously," the police chief said minus the tongue in cheek.

Halverson is being held in the Brazoria County Detention Center on a $10,000 bond.

"It's hard to say why he did it," Pynes told 11 News. "Whatever he was drinking, I wouldn't want it."