Alpine Beating Suspects Granted Court Delay : Courts: Five men have been arrested in the vigilante attack on three Latinos at migrant encampment.

El Cajon Municipal Judge Lantz Lewis delayed a preliminary hearing Monday until Nov. 30 for four men charged in connection with a vigilante baseball bat attack on three migrants in Alpine.

Lawyers representing the men requested that the date be moved, because some of the arrests were made as recently as late last week. Requests by two of the attorneys to have their clients released were denied.

A fifth man arrested Friday--Ronald Inman, 22, of El Cajon--was scheduled to be arraigned on the same charges as the others Monday afternoon and will also face a Nov. 30 preliminary hearing date, sources said.

The Oct. 1 bat attack by six to eight Anglos was sparked by reports that a white woman had been raped near the migrant encampment a week earlier. Three migrants--none of them connected to the purported rape--were seriously injured in the baseball bat beating.

On Monday, Daniel Stout, 35, of Alpine--the husband of the woman who reported being raped--was led into court handcuffed to Charles Edward Nocita, 28, of El Cajon. Also cuffed together were Ronald Aishman, 26, of Spring Valley, and Christopher Hastings, 21, of El Cajon.

All the men have been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault with great bodily injury, conspiracy to commit those crimes, and a hate crime, a criminal complaint filed with the court shows.

The men have a wide range of prior offenses, including robberies and traffic violations. Stout is on probation for two misdemeanor offenses of beating his wife, records show.

After a thorough investigation that involved interviews of potential suspects and witnesses in the United States and Mexico, the San Diego County district attorney’s office decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the purported rape. While the woman said she had been raped by one man, several people interviewed said she had been drinking beer with a group of men and had consensual sex with several of them.

In court Monday, Stout’s wife and young son rubbed their eyes and wept as Stout’s attorney, David Baker, asked Williams to release the father of two pending his trial. Stout’s parents, his wife’s mother and brother, and a neighbor also attended Monday’s proceeding to show their support. Stout’s employer at a pest control company submitted a letter on his behalf.

“My client was raised in Santee. He has lived in San Diego County all his life, and was working as an exterminator at the time of his arrest,” Baker said. “His family is here today, and he has a responsibility to his family. He is their sole provider.”

Baker also said Stout had never acted violently toward “anyone outside his family.” Judge Lewis, however--who has reduced Stout’s bail from $250,000 to $100,000--said the severity of the charges outweighed those factors.

Hastings’ attorney, David Nielsen, also asked the judge to release his client. Hastings, Nielsen argued, like Stout, is a lifelong area resident, and has been working as a baker. He also is the “least culpable,” Nielsen said.

Hastings, who has an outstanding warrant for a traffic violation and a prior drug conviction, turned himself in to police last week when he heard there was another warrant for his arrest. According to Nielsen, Hastings said he did not participate in the bat attack, but he drove the assailants to the scene.