Los Angeles (CNN) -- Los Angeles authorities said Friday that they had arrested three people for an attack this spring outside Dodgers Stadium, adding that the man they'd arrested exactly two months ago and described as the "primary aggressor" was not responsible.
Louie Sanchez, 29, and Marvin Norwood, 30, have been charged with mayhem and assault -- both felonies -- related to the March 31 beating of Bryan Stow, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said. Sanchez is also charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery stemming from another incident on the same day.
Both men, who are from Rialto, are being held on $500,000 bail. They are expected to appear Monday for their arraignment in Los Angeles Superior Court.
A woman was also taken into custody with the men, though she has not yet been charged. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters Friday that charges against the woman -- whom he called 31-year-old Dorene Sanchez -- are pending.
Bryan Stow, the man they allegedly attacked, meanwhile remains hospitalized in a San Francisco hospital, recovering from extensive brain and other trauma.
Police said the 42-year-old paramedic from Santa Cruz, a Giants fan, was attacked by two men in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Dodgers stadium after the opening game of the Dodgers and Giants seasons. Unprovoked, the men began to kick and punch Stow, yelling profanities about the Giants, before heading off in a car driven by a woman, police said.
Stow's mother, Ann Stow, said that her son was first hit from behind, at which point he fell and his head hit the concrete.
"It was just a brutal attack," she said. "Whatever that guy hit my son with, Bryan was unconscious before he hit the ground, so he had no way to protect his head."
Stow was placed in a medically induced coma following the incident. He underwent emergency surgery Monday morning at San Francisco General Hospital, precipitated by "massive amounts of fluid building up that caused a 30-second seizure," his family said on their website.
By Friday, though, the family said that Stow's condition had improved and he appeared "very alert" -- able to open and close his eyes on command, move his right hand and mouth his last name to medical staff.
He struggles to recover as investigators continued to wrestle with a case that's drawn intense public attention. Beck said that police had interviewed more than 600 people and devoted thousands of hours trying to crack the case.
They thought they'd gotten their break May 22. Los Angeles authorities announced then that they had arrested Giovanni Ramirez, 31, because they believed he was the "primary aggressor" in the attack. Ramirez, a documented gang member associated with the Varrio Nuevo Estrada street gang in East Los Angeles, was then ordered jailed on $1 million bail.
On June 20, he was ordered to serve 10 months -- a term that cannot be reduced -- for violating parole related to a 2005 conviction for possession of a firearm, California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a press release. He previously had been convicted in 1998 for robbery, court records show.
But a second charge related to Stow's assault was dropped "without prejudice" on that same date "due to the lack of the evidence presented on that charge," the corrections department statement said.
Beck said Friday that Ramirez was exonerated as a result of the continuing investigation, adding that police met a "burden of proof" required to arrest him, but not to proceed with a criminal case. He conceded that the backtracking may not help police credibility, but said it is "just as important that we find out the innocent that we find the guilty."
"What this investigation speaks to is that we do the right thing, even when it's the hard thing," Beck said. "This is about the character of the police department ... even when it reflects badly on us."
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