Charges Dropped Against 1 of 4 Marines Held in Irvine Attack

Charges have been dropped against one of four Marines accused of beating and robbing a 43-year-old man as he walked home from a coffee shop in Irvine’s Woodbridge community, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Deputy District Atty. Laurie Hungerford would not comment beyond saying there was insufficient evidence to pursue the case.

William Anady, 21, of Irvine, was released from the Orange County Jail last Friday. But he remains in custody at Camp Pendleton while the Marines investigate the case.

He and three other Marines stationed at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station were arrested in connection with the Nov. 10 attack.

The victim was knocked to the ground by a group of men as he strolled near Stone Creek South and Yale Loop. The men kicked and punched the resident, then tried to rob him. The victim threw down his pocket day planner and fled.

Police arrested the four Marines more than a month later after they developed leads from an unrelated case involving one of the men. Three of the men pleaded not guilty to charges of assault with a deadly weapon and robbery. Michael Lown, 25, of New York; Ather Bridges, 20, of North Carolina, and Christopher Byars, 20, of Maine, face a court hearing Monday, Hungerford said.

Diana Elliot, Anady’s mother, who lives in Washington state, said her son has a spotless record “inside and outside” of the Marines. Anady, who joined the Marines in 1993, told his mother that he wanted to become a police officer and that four years in the military would help him achieve that goal.

“He’s extremely devoted to his wife and his 19-month-old daughter,” Elliot said in a telephone interview Thursday. “He would never do something like this.”