Brawl leads to arrests

Deepa Bharath

A drunken fight between two homeless men over an issue of Maxim

magazine has left one man in the hospital with severe injuries and

another in jail facing one count of attempted murder, officials said

Tuesday.

Costa Mesa police officers arrested 36-year-old Anthony Doug Maris

on Sunday afternoon after Maris got into an argument over the

magazine with 39-year-old Victor Lopes and then kicked and beat him,

said Lt. Dale Birney.

The incident happened at about 2:45 p.m. behind the 2200 block of

Fairview Road, he said.

Both men had been drinking before they got into the fight, Birney

said. Lopes suffered “major facial and head trauma,” he said.

“After beating up Lopes, Maris walked away from the scene leaving

Lopes bleeding and unconscious,” Birney said. “Lopes must have

remained in that condition for at least 20 minutes before paramedics

arrived and transported him to the hospital.”

Lopes was taken to Hoag Hospital Presbyterian where he still

remains, Birney said. He declined to release the nature of Lopes’

injuries and hospital officials said Tuesday afternoon that they were

unable to get an update on Lopes’ condition.

Maris was booked on an assault with a deadly weapon charge, but

the Orange County District Attorney filed one count of attempted

murder on Tuesday after looking at a report about Lopes’ injuries,

Birney said.

He said several homeless people in the city get involved in fights

and cause disturbances, but it seldom escalates to this point.

“The type of incidents we often come across are where they are

combative or are involved in some type of assault,” he said.

Such incidents involving the homeless do occur from time to time

in the city. On Nov. 10, 2000, police arrested a 39-year-old homeless

man on suspicion of bludgeoning to death another transient. The

47-year-old dead man was found in some bushes in a commercial area

Harbor Boulevard.

On Oct. 9, 2001, a quarrel over sleeping space among a group of

homeless people escalated when one man pulled out a knife and stabbed

another man multiple times. In that case, however, the injuries were

not life threatening.

Maris is being held in Orange County jail in lieu of a $50,000

bail, according to information posted on the Orange County Sheriff’s

Web site. He was released from the jail barely a day before he got

arrested again, the Web site showed.

Maris had been arrested previously on Oct. 15 for disorderly

conduct and released on Saturday morning, three days before his

sentence ended.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes. com.