Orange County Teen-Ager Held in Beach Attack : Violence: Laguna Beach officials say youths left the victim near death in possible gay-bashing incident.

An Orange County high school student was arrested Saturday after a possible gay-bashing incident here left an unidentified man near death with severe head injuries.

The incident occurred early Saturday morning on a dark beach near three gay bars in Laguna Beach. Police and city officials said the attack was targeted at homosexuals, although a witness denied that gays were the target.

Jeff Michael Raines, an 18-year-old senior at San Clemente High School, was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, police said. He may later be charged with violating the state’s hate crimes law, police said.

Three juveniles in a car with Raines were not arrested, but may face charges later, police said. Their names were not released.

The victim, a man between 40 and 50, was in critical condition at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center with severe head wounds. Police and doctors said his head had been kicked and bashed against rocks until his face was virtually unrecognizable. No one knew if the man is gay, officials said.

“We still can’t tell who he is,” said Dr. Thomas Shaver, the hospital’s director of trauma services who treated the man. “He might be Asian, but we can’t tell. His face is all stomped in.”

Shocked Laguna Beach officials called an emergency meeting of the City Council on Saturday afternoon to discuss the incident and the community’s expected reaction. Laguna Beach has a sizable gay population.

“I think that news of the crime has traveled in the community and there is a great deal of fear,” Mayor Lida Lenney said.

Saturday’s beating occurred about 1:30 a.m. at the beach end of Mountain Road, near Pacific Coast Highway.

Police said they suspect that it may be a hate crime because of the area where it occurred. “They went to a known gay area and they knew it was a known gay area,” said police Sgt. Ray Lardie.

After meeting with police Saturday, City Councilman Robert F. Gentry said he believes the attack was aimed at gays.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that this was a hate crime and that these kids had gone into an area known for gay bars to do some gay-bashing,” Gentry said. “This is very, very tragic, and it’s an example of the level of hate in this nation against gay and lesbian people. . . . As a gay man, I’m scared to death.”

Gentry said he was told that the incident began when the teen-agers left a nonalcoholic bar on Laguna Canyon Road and drove to the gay bar area. Police said Raines and two juveniles parked their car and walked to a nearby beach. They encountered a man on the beach, and an argument ensued, Lardie said.

The youths told police “the victim made some kind of derogatory remarks, and that triggered the assault,” the sergeant said.

Lardie said Raines “pushed the victim down and started kicking him in the head.” The rocky terrain on the beach worsened the injuries to the man because “his head was against the rocks,” Lardie said.

He said Raines was the only suspect directly involved in the kicking and assault.

After the beating, the youths loaded into their car and drove off, Lardie said. A pedestrian saw the fleeing car, noted the license and called police, he said.

About a mile down Pacific Coast Highway, police stopped the car and, at gunpoint, ordered the occupants out.

A teen-age passenger interviewed by The Times said the beating was not motivated by hate. He said he rode with Raines and two others from the nightclub and they just happened to end up parked outside the gay bars.

“Jeff just wanted to get in a fight, and some poor guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the youth said.

“It made me sick to think how badly Jeff beat this guy,” he said. “I cried all day.”

Raines was booked into the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana. Bail was set at $250,000.

Classmates of Raines said he was an athlete who was widely known by the nickname “Logs” because of his bulky arms and legs.

“He’s not a fighter,” said one 17-year-old senior who declined to be named.