Man gets 14 days in jail in Dodger game attack
He pleads no contest in postgame fight that put victim in hospital.
A 28-year-old man pleaded no contest Wednesday in connection with an assault that left a baseball fan critically injured after a 2015 playoff game at Dodger Stadium.
Michael Rae Papayans of Palos Verdes Estates will serve 14 days in jail and pay more than $100,000 in restitution after pleading no contest to the assault charge, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. He originally faced up to seven years in prison.
The attack took place in the stadium parking lot around 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 9, shortly after the Dodgers lost the first game of the 2015 National League Divisional Series to the New York Mets, police said.
Papayans and his mother started screaming insults at a group that included a Mets fan and a fight broke out. Prosecutors said Papayans rushed toward a 50-year-old man and threw a punch, causing the victim to slam into the ground and lose consciousness.
Papayans’ mother, Jennifer, then set upon the victim, kicking him while he was down, police said. The pair ran off while others came to the victim’s aid. Witnesses reported that the victim’s skull hit the pavement with a sickening thud. He was knocked out almost immediately and was hospitalized with serious head injuries, authorities said.
Papayans was charged last February. His mother’s case was referred to the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.
The confrontation recalled the 2011 attack on Bryan Stow, a San Francisco Giants fan who suffered permanent brain damage after he was beaten at the stadium on opening day.
Two men were sentenced to federal prison for the attack on Stow, who later won an $18-million judgment against the Dodgers.