Police Say Laguna Beating Was Hate Crime

Police said Sunday they will ask prosecutors to file a hate crime charge against an 18-year-old San Clemente High School senior being held in the attempted murder of a man in a largely gay area of town.

Police said they decided to seek the additional charge against Jeff Michael Raines of San Juan Capistrano after interviews with at least eight juveniles who accompanied the ex-high school football player here Friday night.

Laguna Beach Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. said Sunday in an interview that one of the juveniles claimed Raines earlier Friday evening had said: “Let’s go down to Mountain Street to get some fags.” Purcell concluded that “we can now establish it is a hate crime.”

None of the juveniles--most of whom are students at San Clemente High School--have been arrested because police don’t believe any of them participated in the beating. Purcell said Sunday that his investigators are looking into whether there was a criminal conspiracy.

Purcell added that police will pursue curfew violations against the youths.

“It would appear all of them would be in violation of our curfew ordinance,” Purcell said, which requires that youths be indoors before midnight. “All these kids were out past midnight.”

Meanwhile, police said Sunday that they believed they had identified the victim, who was so badly beaten about 1:30 a.m. Saturday that investigators could not immediately determine his race.

Sgt. Lance Ishmael said the victim is a 50- to 55-year-old Asian who weighs about 125 pounds. He is 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-7.

Police checked the license plates of 60 or more parked cars in the neighborhood of the beating, which occurred on the beach at the end of Mountain Road. Three gay bars are at or near the intersection of Mountain and South Coast Highway, a block from the scene of the beating.

The physical description on the driver’s license of one car’s owner matched that of the beaten man, Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Greg Bartz said. The car had been cited for a parking violation, Purcell said.

Ishmael said Sunday evening, however, that police were having trouble locating the man’s relatives.

The man was still in critical condition Sunday night at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

Sunday evening, the man was unconscious and it was unclear whether he would awaken or slip into a coma, hospital officials said.

Police said the man was pushed down onto a rocky shelf of beach and his head was repeatedly “stomped” on.

Hospital employees said the man had cuts on both sides of his head and his face. Though he sustained fractures to his face and skull, his features are still intact, but his head is so swollen he is virtually unrecognizable, officials said.

Purcell’s account of one juvenile’s statements to police contradicts that of a second juvenile, who said in an interview with The Times on Saturday that the beating was not a gay bashing.

“There was no motive,” the boy said. “Some poor guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

But police have maintained that all of the juveniles “had knowledge the area they were in was a predominantly gay area,” Bartz said.

Police said the attack evidently began after the man allegedly made a derogatory comment to Raines and one of the juveniles. It was unclear why any remark was made, police said, because they have been unable to interview the victim.

Raines, who police said is about 6-foot-1 and weighs about 200 pounds, could face a year in jail under the state’s hate crime law if he is convicted.

He was being held Sunday at Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

One of the juveniles present at the alleged beating is a member of the San Clemente Police Explorer group, which is associated with the San Clemente Police Department, according to Laguna Beach city officials. A spokeswoman for the San Clemente Explorer group declined to comment.

In recent years, Capistrano Unified School District and community officials say they have developed programs to try to fight prejudice on all levels.

San Clemente High School officials have created an “ethnic/cultural relations advisory committee,” which involves teachers, administrators, students and parents.

One of the campus awareness groups is run by district psychologist Loren O’Connor.

“It’s real popular with the kids,” O’Connor said. “Of course, the whole issue of prejudice and hating people because they’re Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, gay or lesbian comes up frequently.”

Residents of Laguna Beach said Sunday that they were shocked and concerned over the alleged gay-bashing. Some were outraged, too.

“People are really angry,” said Rusty, a waiter at the Little Shrimp bar. “It frightens people. It makes our community feel unsafe.”

The Laguna Beach City Council held an emergency meeting Saturday and officials are calling for a re-evaluation of public safety measures in the area of the attack.

The beating site, at the end of Mountain Road, is part of a stretch of beach that is frequented by many Laguna Beach residents and tourists. Every July 4, numerous families--gay and straight alike--gather at the beach to watch fireworks.

But several men interviewed Sunday said that the beach has been the site of previous gay-bashings and harassment.

Some bartenders and shopkeepers in the area said they warn newcomers to avoid the beach at night.

“We tell every new face we see not to go,” said Vince Savelle, a bartender at Main Street, a gay bar.

Times staff writer Timothy Chou and correspondent Anna Cekola contributed to this article.

* ATTACK ANGERS RESIDENTS: Gays in Laguna say they’re fed up with harassment. A24