Two men charged with Dodger Stadium beating (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Two men newly arrested in the savage beating of a San Francisco Giants fan outside Dodger Stadium were charged on Friday with assault and battery, while an ex-convict jailed two months ago as a suspect was officially exonerated.

The turning point in a case that drew national headlines and stymied the Los Angeles Police Department for weeks came as the family of Bryan Stow, 42, who was left in a coma by the beating, said he was finally showing signs of improvement.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief Charlie Beck waited until after prosecutors had formally charged the two men arrested on Thursday to confirm at a news conference that the latest suspects were in custody.

"The process has worked," Villaraigosa said.

Louis Sanchez, 29, and Marvin Norwood, 30, both of Rialto, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, are slated for arraignment on Monday. They were held in lieu of $500,000 bail each.

The district attorney's office said both men were charged with mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury -- all felonies collectively punishable by up to eight years in prison.

Sanchez was also charged with two misdemeanor counts of battering stemming from a separate incident the same day. He faces another year behind bars if convicted of those charges.

Authorities said a woman was also arrested in the case but has not been charged. She was identified by the Los Angeles Times as Dorene Sanchez, 31, believed to be Louis Sanchez's sister and the wife or girlfriend of Norwood.

Investigators concluded that the convicted felon originally arrested as a suspect, Giovanni Ramirez, 31, a documented gang member, was not involved in the attack.

"I want to tell the world, Giovanni Ramirez is no longer a suspect in this case," Beck said. "It is just as important to exonerate the innocent as it is to implicate the guilty."

Ramirez, arrested on the basis of a tip from a parole officer in what police then called a major break in the case, was never charged with the beating. But he was sent back to prison for 10 months on a parole violation stemming from the discovery of a gun in the apartment where he was staying.

His lawyer and family have steadfastly maintained his innocence, saying he was not at the stadium at the time of the beating. His mother, Soledad Gonzalez, called her son's arrest "a big, big mistake."

Stow, a paramedic and father of two, had driven to the game in Los Angeles from his northern California home in Santa Cruz to see his favorite baseball team, the Giants, play the Dodgers on the Opening Day game March 31 at Dodger Stadium.

Dressed in Giants apparel, he was attacked by two men wearing Dodgers gear in the stadium parking lot after the game, beaten so badly that he was left in a coma.

The assault touched off a furor in Los Angeles over what critics said was a failure by the city and team officials to provide adequate security.

Stow remains hospitalized in San Francisco, but his family said on its website that he was opening his eyes and alert, and was able to mouth his last name, just days after suffering a medical setback that had led to emergency surgery.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Dodger Stadium beating suspect sent back to prison (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An ex-convict arrested in the severe beating of a San Francisco Giants fan at Dodger Stadium was found in violation of his parole on Monday and ordered returned to prison for 10 months.

A California parole commissioner ruled that Giovanni Ramirez, 31, had violated his parole by having access to a weapon, which police say they found at his home when he was taken into custody for the Opening Day attack.

The Board of Parole Hearings had previously found that the state lacked evidence to revoke Ramirez's parole in connection with the March 31 assault on Bryan Stow, which left 42-year-old paramedic and father of two in a coma.

Despite a May 23 press conference by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and police chief Charlie Beck trumpeting the arrest of Ramirez as a breakthrough in the case, the 31-year-old reputed gang member has not been formally charged.

Ramirez's family says he is innocent and was not at Dodger Stadium at the time of the beating, which touched off a furor in Los Angeles over what critics say was a failure by city and team officials to provide adequate stadium security.

Stow drove more than 300 miles from his home in Santa Cruz to attend Opening Day at Dodger Stadium and was set upon by two men in the parking lot following the game, apparently because he wore Giants garb.

The attack comes at a bad time for McCourt, who is fighting his ex-wife and Major League Baseball to retain control of the troubled franchise.

Major League Baseball, in an extraordinary move, took over day-to-day control of the Dodgers in April over what Commissioner Bud Selig said were concerns over the club's finances.

And on Monday, Selig refused to approve a massive TV deal between the Dodgers and Fox that would have given the financially strapped team an instant injection of cash.

That decision by Selig appears to scupper a divorce settlement between Frank and Jamie McCourt that was contingent on the TV contract winning MLB approval.

(Editing by Greg McCune)

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Dodger Stadium beating suspect remains in custody (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A 31-year-old ex-convict arrested in the beating of a San Francisco Giants fan at Dodger Stadium on Opening Day remained in custody on Monday on a parole hold, prosecutors said.

Giovanni Ramirez was taken into custody early on Sunday morning in connection with the attack on Bryan Stow, a crime that touched off a furor in Los Angeles over a failure by team and city officials to provide adequate security at the stadium.

"The arrest of Giovanni Ramirez, the suspect in the Dodger Stadium beating, is under review by the District Attorney's Office," spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.

She said Ramirez, who has two prior felony convictions, remained in custody on a parole hold. He has not been charged in the case.

Police say they are still searching for two alleged accomplices in the March 31 beating of Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic and father of two who remains in critical condition at a San Francisco hospital.

"This investigation is at its very early stages," Police Chief Charlie Beck said in announcing the arrest of Ramirez. "We have considerable work left to do. There are at least two outstanding suspects that we are actively searching for."

The arrest of Ramirez, he said, stemmed from a tip from a parole officer that led to police obtaining search warrants.

Stow, who drove more than 300 miles from his home in Santa Cruz to attend Opening Day at Dodger Stadium, was attacked and beaten by two men in the parking lot following the game, apparently because he wore Giants garb.

Stow's assailants, who struck him from behind and kicked him as he lay on the ground, remained at large for more than seven weeks despite a $150,000 reward and sketches of their likenesses posted on billboards across the city.

A week after the attack on Stow, city officials and Dodgers owner Frank McCourt pledged to beef up security at the stadium and deploy a "sea" of police officers there.

McCourt and city officials had been roundly criticized in the local media and by talk-radio hosts for lax security at the stadium, where pundits say an atmosphere of intimidation and thuggish behavior has been tolerated for several years.

Commentators say the stadium parking lot also suffered from poor lighting and that residents of surrounding neighborhoods have for years been subject to vandalism, littering and rude behavior from fans.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gormanj; Editing by Greg McCune)

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