A bruised and battered Beacon Hill bicyclist lambasted as “a joke” the $1,000 bail a downtown judge set today for a taxi driver he and other witnesses claim savagely beat him before trying to run him over as Lucas J. Brunelle was calling 911 on behalf of a woman he’d just struck with his bike on Tremont Street Friday night.

“A thousand dollars? I think it’s a joke,” said Brunelle, 43, after Sam Chandler, 45, of Watertown, pleaded not guilty in Boston Municipal Court to charges of assault and battery and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in personal injury.

Brunelle, a cinematographer and bike racer, called the chaotic scene, “a group ride gone bad.”

Chandler lives with and cares for his 80-year-old mother. In addition to being a part-time driver for Bay State Taxi of Brookline, the 6-foot, 300-pound cabbie works a second job parking cars at Children’s Hospital, according to his attorney Kim Giampietro.

Judge Thomas C. Horgan warned Chandler if he makes bail — which Giampietro indicated was unlikely because he has no family capable of collecting the money for him — that he is to stay out of trouble and steer clear of Brunelle.

A woman walking in a crosswalk on Tremont Street with her sister Friday shortly after 6 p.m. was hit by Brunelle on his bike when he ran a red light, according to police reports released today. The woman was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with head injuries after, Brunelle claims, he flagged Chandler down to help him help her.

“I was trying to get a taxi for (her) and this guy comes out and hits me and then he tries to run me over with his car,” Brunelle said. “I said, ‘We were on a group ride. Someone got an injury, they’ve got to go to the hospital.’ He started getting in my face and ‘(expletive) you’ and so I shot back and I said, ‘(Expletive) you.’ He gets out and he attacks me. He tried to run me over.”

Chandler began punching Brunelle “with his fist, knocking him to the ground and continued the assault while (Brunelle) was on the ground,” court documents state. Chandler allegedly fled the scene, but was arrested on Granite Avenue in Dorchester by Boston Police Officer Kevin Egan, who was working a paid detail in the area.

A black and swollen right eye was clearly visible behind Brunelle’s sunglasses today, as were facial cuts. The woman he struck is expected to survive.

Giampietro told Horgan Chandler has no criminal record and only stood before the judge now because, “He had a situation that was brought upon him.” She declined to speak to reporters afterward.

Chandler was ordered to return to court Dec. 10 for a pre-trial hearing.