Updated 3:10 p.m.

Deschutes County prosecutors on Monday dropped all charges against a man accused of brutally attacking two women in a road rage incident that generated international headlines, the district attorney's office said.

Police arrested Jay Barbeau after Megan Stackhouse, 34, and fiancee Lucinda Mann, 26, told officers he had smashed their car's rear window, snapped Stackhouse's arm with his bare hands and knocked Mann unconscious during a June 1 altercation in Bend.

Barbeau, a 48-year-old Redmond resident, had remained behind bars until he was released from jail Monday.

District Attorney John Hummel said in statement he decided to drop the charges, which included felony assault, after a review of medical records, witness accounts and prior incidents involving the two women.

"I have no confidence in the credibility of Mann and Stackhouse," Hummel said.

Casey Baxter, a lawyer for Barbeau, said his client admitted to punching out the women's window in a fit of anger, but did so after their Kia Soul had hopped a curb while leaving a cider festival, nearly slammed into his pickup truck and the women flipped him and his wife off repeatedly.

"He really never once struck any of those women," Baxter said. "The entire event was a terrible lie that turned into international condemnation."

Stackhouse and Mann did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

In interviews last week, the pair said Barbeau tailed them for blocks in his pickup truck after Stackhouse pulled out in front of him while leaving a carnival thrown by the AVID Cider Company.

When the women eventually pulled over, they said, Barbeau hopped out of his truck, darted over to their car and shattered its rear window and taillight with his fist.

The women said Barbeau later reached into the car and snapped Stackhouse's arm with his bare hands. He then punched her in the face multiple times and then threw Mann to the ground when she tried to intervene, knocking the younger woman unconscious and leaving her with a concussion, according to Mann and Stackhouse.

Hummel, in his statement, said the women's accounts could not be substantiated.

"Mann's claimed injuries in the Barbeau case were debunked by the medical records," he said. "While Stackhouse did suffer a broken bone in her wrist, there are competing claims as to how her injury occurred and based on her lack of credibility, I cannot stand behind her version of events."

According to Baxter, Stackhouse may have broken her right arm by slamming it on Barbeau's truck after he punched out the window of her car, a detail also included in the district attorney's statement.

While Mann dropped to the ground during the altercation, there was no evidence she had been assaulted or thrown down by Barbeau, Baxter and Hummel said.

During its investigation, Hummel's office said it found Mann had feigned being unconscious in a 2016 traffic incident and, last week, had intentionally thrown herself onto the hood of a car in the road after drinking with Stackhouse at Bend's 10 Barrel brewery.

Days after the alleged beat down by Barbeau, which garnered headlines worldwide, Deschutes County prosecutors charged Stackhouse with assault in a separate road rage incident from May.

She was accused of punching a woman in the face after twice ramming into her car on Mother's Day. She's scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 II @shanedkavanaugh