San Diego

Two young men arrested earlier this week in a robbery and assault in North Park were ordered Friday to be held in County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail, authorities said.

Randall Lee Rollings, 18, and Richard Lawrence Gorondy, 19, were arrested Wednesday after police said they shouted anti-gay epithets while beating and robbing a 24-year-old man on 30th Street.

Both men pleaded not guilty to robbing and assaulting Michael Martinez, but they were not charged with committing a hate crime.

Defense attorneys told San Diego Municipal Court Judge David Danielson that “mass hysteria” has occurred in television news reports and newspaper articles because of the unsolved beatings of 35 people in Hillcrest and North Park.

The pair are not believed to be involved in last week’s Hillcrest murder of John Wear, 17, who was stabbed to death by two white men believed to be skinheads and who shouted anti-gay epithets, authorities said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Rice requested $100,000 bail for each defendant, but defense attorneys Bart Sheela III and Ron Bobo said that was excessive.

Sheela said someone charged with a routine robbery would have bail set at $15,000, though Bobo called that figure “excessive.”

The judge said he was “considering public safety” at the higher bail figure and noted the defendants were “something of a flight risk.”

Though Rice said the investigation was continuing, Danielson said the two men “may be suspects in other incidents.”

A bail review was scheduled for Thursday, and a preliminary hearing for Jan. 7.