By Travis Gettys
Enquirer contributor

NEWPORT - A man accused of a hate crime pleaded not guilty Thursday to one count of first-degree assault after authorities said he seriously injured another man.

The attorney for Steven Ard, 38, of Newport, said his client acted in self defense when he struck Matthew Ashcraft, 19, in the back of the head with an aluminum baseball bat.

Ashcraft suffered a fractured skull, a blood clot, cranial bleeding and hearing damage in the June 26 incident, which police have called a hate crime.

Under Kentucky law, crimes motivated by bias - including race, gender, religion and sexual orientation - do not carry an additional penalty, but judges may remove the possibility of parole.

Witnesses say Ard, who had been drinking at Taylor's Landing Tavern, shouted homosexual slurs at a man leaving Woolly's On Monmouth, an adjacent bar with many gay patrons. Ashcraft, who is not gay, came to the man's aid after Ard began threatening him, and witnesses told police that Ard retrieved the bat from his home nearby. But Ard's attorney, F. Dennis Alerding, says his client was outnumbered and chased home and used the bat only to defend himself.

Campbell County Circuit Court Judge Leonard Kopowski set a pre-trial hearing Sept. 17 for Ard, who is free on bond.