Police Arrest 2 Others in Laguna Beating

Laguna Beach police arrested two additional suspects Monday in what they described as a brutal gay bashing and also released the identity of the victim--a 55-year-old Vietnamese immigrant.

Christopher Michael Cribbins, 22, of San Clemente, was arrested on suspicion of “assault with force to do great bodily harm” and violating the city’s hate crime law, police said. He is a clerk at a leather and suede store in Mission Viejo.

Also arrested was a 16-year-old San Clemente Police Explorer on suspicion of obstructing the Laguna Beach investigation after he allegedly “lied numerous times” to authorities about the beating, said Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr.

Laguna Beach officials may seek additional charges against the youth--including a hate crime violation--because he allegedly drove the car to the beating site looking for gays, Purcell said.

The victim was identified Monday as Loc Minh Truong, 55, of Costa Mesa. He was in serious condition Monday evening at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

Hospital officials said Truong suffered fractures to his face and skull. His face is so badly swollen that his sister Ly Truong could barely recognize him Monday morning, according to Edit Truong, a relative.

Family members said Monday that Truong--a 5-foot-6, 120-pound man who emigrated from Saigon 14 years ago--is a fragile, caring person who was laid off last year from his job as an electronics assembler.

Edit Truong, the wife of the victim’s nephew, said Loc Minh Truong is not gay but “even if he was, that doesn’t mean he’s a horrible person. He’s like an angel. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. . . . He is the most gentle, affectionate man you ever met.”

Purcell said those arrested allegedly confronted the victim about 1:30 a.m. Saturday on a stretch of beach that is near three gay bars. He said Truong did not provoke the attack.

In custody since shortly after the incident is Jeff Michael Raines, 18, of San Juan Capistrano, who is being held on suspicion of attempted murder and a hate crime.

Police on Monday described Raines as the “main principal” behind the beating.

Raines’ Orange attorney, Fredrick McBride, said “it’s too early for anyone, and I mean anyone, to know what happened here.”

According to Purcell, the three arrested suspects confronted Truong on the beach, then said: “You . . . faggot . . . we’re going to get you.”

Purcell said the 16-year-old who was arrested “turned and ran back toward his car” after the remarks were allegedly made and did not participate in the beating.

Cribbins allegedly pushed Truong down onto a rocky shelf of beach and then Raines--a 6-foot-1, 200-pound ex-football player at San Clemente High School--allegedly “stomped” on his head so many times that investigators could not determine his race until a day after the incident, Purcell said.

Bypassers said someone went down to the beach and found Truong’s nearly lifeless body and police were called. Witnesses gave police a license plate and description of the suspects’ car, which was stopped shortly thereafter on Coast Highway.

Cribbins’ mother, Jeannie, reached at her Yorba Linda home, said Monday that her son “didn’t do anything. He was just there with his friends. He was just in the wrong place (at) the wrong time.”

Cribbins was being held Monday evening at Orange County Jail on $10,000 bail, authorities said.

The juvenile, who lives in San Juan Capistrano, was released to his parents Monday.

Raines, in Orange County Jail on $250,000 bail, is to be arraigned this morning, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig McKinnon.

McBride, Raines’ attorney, said people should not be so quick to judge his client as a gay basher.

“From what I know so far, these allegations are completely inconsistent with Mr. Raines’ character and his past behavior,” said McBride. “I suggest it’s appropriate for everybody to calm down a little bit, let the smoke settle and see what we’re dealing with before everybody forms their opinions about him.”

The lifelong ambition of the juvenile arrested in the Truong case is to be a police officer, according to friends.

But San Clemente Police Chief Michael Sorg said Monday that the boy was dismissed from the Explorers on Sunday. The boy “had put himself in a position he never should have,” Sorg said. Sorg said the boy had been an Explorer for two years and had an “exemplary” record.

Police had said over the weekend that they believed only Raines had attacked Truong, but after conducting additional interviews concluded that others “were lying to us.”

The incident began, Police Chief Purcell said, on Friday when two carloads of eight teen-agers--including the three suspects in a Volkswagen Bug--left a nonalcoholic dance hall on Laguna Canyon Road called Club Post Nuclear and headed in the direction of the Little Shrimp, a gay bar next to the beach where Saturday’s beating is alleged to have taken place.

Inside the Volkswagen, Purcell said Raines and Cribbins talked about “going to the Little Shrimp area to beat up some fags.” The fourth juvenile in the VW and those in the other car have not been arrested because police believe they were not involved in the attack, Purcell said.

Almost all of the eight teen-agers are students at San Clemente High School.

Truong was identified after police had checked the license plates of 60 or more parked cars in the area of the attack. Keys found in Truong’s pockets opened a car that later was identified as his.

Court records show that Truong was arrested by Laguna Beach police in 1987 and pleaded guilty the following year to engaging in lewd conduct with another man at the same beach where he was beaten.

The court at the time, according to records, admonished Truong to stay off the Mountain Road beach for at least three years.

Purcell said Truong’s previous arrest isn’t a reason for “someone to come and grizzly beat him.”

Laguna Beach City Councilman Robert F. Gentry said Truong’s 1988 conviction is “not relevant to this case. He was still attacked and there was an attempted murder on him. We in no way should start blaming the victim.”

On Monday, San Clemente High School Principal Christopher Cairns issued a statement saying that he was “saddened by this violence and concerned that any of our young people could have been associated with it.”

Michelle Horton, a 15-year-old sophomore, said the beating “wasn’t right.”

“We all have rights. If he wanted to be gay, that’s his right,” Horton said.

The alleged attack stunned members of the 300-strong Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) in Orange County.

Elena Leyland, a Mission Viejo resident and an active member of the group, said several of PFLAG’s members called several South County school districts seeking permission to speak to students so they could familiarize them with gay and lesbian issues.

“I’m saddened but determined that we as parents are going to stand up to this scare tactic,” said Leyland, the mother of two young men, one of whom is gay. “People are fearful of what they do not know. It’s important that people know the facts about homosexuality.”

Police say there has been a string of attacks against gays in Laguna Beach dating back to at least the late 1970s, when a gay man was stabbed 16 times in the back. In that case, the victim died. Then, there was no such thing as a “hate crime” on the books, Purcell said.

In another fatal attack about eight years ago, a gay man was stabbed once in the chest following an apparent argument, police Sgt. Greg Bartz said. That attack occurred on Oceanfront, not far from the Little Shrimp.

Laguna Beach resident Kyle Anderson, who said he was walking in the area of the alleged attack about midnight Friday, is organizing a candlelight vigil Friday at 11:45 p.m. at Mountain Road and South Coast Highway.

Anderson said he did not know the victim but is planning the event to “show some compassion for humankind.”

He has notified between 20 and 30 gay and lesbian groups in Orange County and hopes to post bulletins at area high schools so “students who weren’t involved and don’t condone bigotry and hatred can show up and offer their support.”

Anderson said he timed the vigil so that it would end at about the time the beating allegedly occurred.

“Hopefully, this will be the last time this will happen,” he said.

Times staff writers Lily Dizon, Len Hall, Davan Maharaj and David Reyes and correspondents Anna Cekola, Bob Elston and Frank Messina contributed to this article.