A judge refused today to lower bail for a 21-year-old man who put a stranger in a three-week coma this summer after mocking his hairstyle at a Gresham party.



Multnomah County Circuit Judge Michael McShane told Brandon Edward Sanchez he was immature before saying he wouldn't lower bail from $250,000 because he needed to protect the community.



The decision came as a relief to Mark Bryant's family, who say Bryant is brain damaged, unable to carry on a conversation and still bedridden at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland more than two months after the Aug. 11, unprovoked attack.





Bryant's sister, Emily Bryant, had urged the judge not allow Sanchez to go back to living his life, pending trial.

"Because my little brother can't," Emily Bryant said.

By witness accounts, Mark Bryant, then 20, had just arrived at a home in the

when Sanchez declared that Bryant's hair looked "gay." Bryant had styled his hair into a "faux hawk," in which hair is spiked with gel into a crest at the center of the head. The term is short for "fake mohawk."

Sanchez reportedly was drunk, ripped off his shirt and charged at Bryant.

Bryant started to leave. Despite several friends trying to hold Sanchez back, Sanchez followed Bryant outside and shoved or threw Bryant off of a 6-foot retaining wall shortly after midnight, witnesses said.

Bryant lay on his back, choking on his own blood, said Josh Lamborn, a private attorney representing the Bryant family. Instead of coming to his aid, Sanchez fled, and a partygoer turned Bryant on his side so the blood could drain, Lamborn said. Sanchez turned himself in about 15 hours later.

Sanchez was charged with second-degree assault. Deputy district attorney Chris Mascal asked the judge to keep bail at $250,000 second-degree assault -- and noted that three years ago another man complained that Sanchez punched him in the head, knocked him to the floor and had to be restrained. The man decided not to pursue charges.

Sanchez's attorney, Gary Bertoni, asked the judge to lower bail to $50,000. Bertoni said it was true that a few partygoers said that on a drunkenness scale of one to 10, Sanchez was a 7 or an 8 at the August party. Bertoni also he wouldn't argue at this hearing that Sanchez didn't push Bryant. But Bertoni said "the injuries were unexpected."

Bertoni also said Sanchez has no criminal history and said if his client is able to post bail, he will go to anger-management counseling and alcohol treatment.

The courtroom was packed with friends and family of Sanchez and Bryant.

Sanchez spent most of the hearing with his eyes cast downward. That included when Bryant's uncle, Bob Pike, said doctors have told the family that parts of Bryant's brain are dead. He had surgery this week to replace a large piece of his skull.

Pike said he's not sure what the extent of Bryant's physical and mental injuries will be.

"We do know they will be life sentences," Pike said.

Family members said an account -- under the name "Kristina Bryant for Mark Bryant" -- has been set up at U.S. Bank branches to help pay medical expenses.

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