By Travis Gettys
Enquirer contributor

NEWPORT - A grand jury Thursday indicted a man accused in a June beating that left another man seriously injured.

Police say Steven Ard of Newport struck Matthew Ashcraft in the back of the head with an aluminum baseball bat outside Woolly's On Monmouth, a bar with many gay patrons.

Witnesses said Ashcraft, who friends say is not a homosexual, had come to the aid of another patron verbally harassed by Ard.

Police characterized the incident as a hate crime, which removes the possibility of parole during the sentencing phase, because Ard had yelled anti-gay slurs before the attack. Ard, who remains in jail on $50,000 bond, will face one felony charge of first-degree Sept. 9 in Campbell County District Court.

The FBI chose not to investigate the case as a federal violation of civil rights.