The Associated Press

MAYSVILLE, Ky. - A grand jury will decide whether four Michigan men accused of attacking a National Guardsman at a Northern Kentucky hotel should be indicted on felony assault charges.

During a pretrial hearing this week, Mason County District Judge W. Todd Walton II ordered the second-degree assault charges sent to the grand jury, which meets again Feb. 13.

Prosecutors said the October beating of Kentucky Army National Guard Sgt. Roosevelt Bowles was racially motivated. Bowles is black and the Michigan men are white.

Defense attorneys argued the incident was nothing more than a drunken brawl and that Bowles' injuries did not reach the severity required for a felony assault charge.

Bowles testified he had a broken blood vessel in his eye, face and head swelling, bruises, and three chipped teeth. He was treated and released from a hospital the morning of the attack, but said he still experiences tingling on one side of his face.

The defendants are Timothy Ross, 32; Ronald Alan Wilder, 32; Michael Ross, 35, and James Sandlin, 33.

Bowles testified that he and 1st Sgt. Mark Tolliver were sitting in a hotel lobby after returning from a bar when the four men entered and yelled slurs at him. Bowles said he asked them to stop.

"As soon as those words got out of my mouth, I got hit in the side of the face," Bowles said. "I could hear and I could feel, I just couldn't see anything."

Defense attorneys asked Walton to reduce the charges to fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor. Walton ruled against the motion.

Police initially charged the men with alcohol intoxication and brought the assault charges almost two months later after an investigation. The grand jury will have the option of returning the case to district court for prosecution as a misdemeanor.

"As often happens when people are intoxicated, things are said and done," Daniel L. Dickerson, the attorney for Sandlin, said after the hearing.

"Certainly this is not a felony and hopefully it will be resolved as a misdemeanor."