Redmond Man Acquitted In 1998 Assault

A Kittitas County jury last week acquitted a young Redmond man of an assault charge stemming from a fight last year in which 18-year-old Glenn Anderson of Kirkland suffered a blow to his head that his family blames for putting him in a coma.

After a two-day trial, a six-person panel in Upper Kittitas District Court in Cle Elum found 19-year-old Bradley Mann not guilty of fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor.

In May 1998, Anderson, then a junior at Juanita High School, went with his girlfriend to a Lake Washington High School senior party at a campground near Easton, Kittitas County.

A fight broke out, and John Murray of Redmond hit Anderson on the head with a glass beer mug.

Anderson felt fine afterward, but on Sept. 17 he collapsed from a brain hemorrhage and has been comatose ever since. His family is trying to raise money to bring him home from a rehabilitation center in Bellevue.

Doctors have been unable to determine whether the blow in May 1998 caused the hemorrhage.

Murray pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and finished a four-month jail sentence last week, Kittitas County Deputy Prosecutor Margaret Sowards said.

In Mann's trial, Sowards argued that Mann pushed Anderson against a pickup, setting him up for Murray's blow.

Mann's attorney, James Sedney of Kirkland, argued that his client was trying to break up the fight and wasn't trying to hurt Anderson.

Anderson's family insists the fight was racially motivated, saying racial epithets were hurled before the blows. Anderson is black. Murray and Mann's families, who are white, sharply deny any racial motivation or that any racial slurs were heard.