MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the battery conviction of a New Castle man who argued in his appeal that a prosecutor had called him a “pig.”

Fifty-year-old Jerry Dean Johnson was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison after a Henry County jury found him guilty of battery resulting in serious bodily injury in an attack on a man at a tavern.

The Star Press reports witnesses said that in May 2012 Johnson struck a man who was dating his ex-girlfriend and repeatedly kicked him in the face.

The victim had to undergo reconstructive surgery on an eye socket and nasal cavity.

The appeals court unanimously rejected Johnson's appeal Tuesday, based in part on the contention that a prosecutor referred to him as a “pig.”