A South End man is charged with mayhem for allegedly beating a dice-playing opponent with a bottle so badly that the victim’s left ear was nearly severed, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

EFREN “KUBA” VALLANT (D.O.B. 2/17/69) was arraigned yesterday in West Roxbury District Court yesterday in connection with a May 23 incident that left the Dorchester man with serious injuries to the left side of his head. Vallant is also charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Prosecutors recommended that Vallant be held on $15,000 cash bail; Judge Mary Ann Driscoll set bail at $100.

Just after 3:00 on the morning of the incident, Boston Police responded to a radio call for a fight in the basement of 3205 Washington St. in Jamaica Plain, observing upon their arrival a large group dispersing from the area. With blood covering his head and saturating his clothes, the victim answered the door when the officers announced their presence.

Responding emergency medical technicians treated the victim briefly at the scene and rushed him to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where doctors told police that he had suffered multiple serious injuries to his head, ear, and hands.

Police at the scene interviewed half a dozen people present at the scene of the attack. All of them told officers that they didn’t see what happened.

In an interview with Boston Police detectives, however, the victim said he had gone to a late-night party in the basement and began playing dice at $10 and $20 a roll with a man he knew as “Kuba.” At one point, after the victim had won several rounds, Kuba grabbed the money from the table, took half for himself, and threw the other half at the victim.

The two men began to argue, with the words soon rising to fisticuffs. Then, the victim said, Kuba swung a bottle at his head and knocked him out.

The victim did not know his assailant’s true name. Based on his description and other information developed during the investigation, however, detectives assembled a photographic array that included the defendant’s photo. The victim picked Vallant’s photo out of the array, identified him as Kuba, and said he was the man who had hit him with a bottle.

Vallant was ordered to return to court on Aug. 20.