BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Trustees at Rocky Mountain College are backing President Michael Mace, who was arrested in Indiana in mid-June and spent a night in jail after allegedly beating up a man.

An unknown number of trustees met with Mace on Friday morning.

Board chairman James Almond said trustees would comment further as more information about the case comes out.

He did praise Mace for erasing Rocky's $1.4 million debt and raising other money since taking over at the Billings school in October 2005.

"Mike has been the best president we could have had and has done an outstanding job," Almond said.

Mace, a Billings businessman, also is the chief executive officer of D&M Industries, a Fargo, N.D.-based company that makes doors, frames, millwork and windows. D&M is a subsidiary of Sterling Acceptance Corp., of which Mace is founder and CEO.

Mace, 55, was arrested June 13 in Carmel, Ind., on misdemeanor battery charges. He spent a night in jail before posting bail the next day.

A bench trial is scheduled July 26 in Noblesville, Ind.

The alleged victim in the case, David S. Klain, said in an e-mail to the Billings Gazette last week that Mace attacked him.

Klain said Mace and his wife own a vacation home in Klain's housing development. He said Mace walked into Klain's office and "started battering my face until I hit the ground and my glasses broke."

"I was attacked completely unprovoked and never even attempted to hit back," Klain said.

Police said the two had been in discussions about needed repairs to Mace's home.

Mace has been president of Rocky for close to two years. He declined to comment on the case.

Mace was a member of the school's board of trustees when Thomas Oates resigned in October 2005. He then became interim president and was named president a few months later.