Police Arrest Queens Man in Midtown Attack on Journalist The police on Wednesday charged a 24-year-old Queens man in the predawn beating of a gay journalist in Midtown Manhattan earlier this month but said that the attack was not a hate crime. Detectives said the man, Leighton Jennings, had been seen by witnesses and on surveillance video engaged in a confrontation with the journalist, Randy Gener, 46, shortly before the assault, around 3 a.m. on Jan. 17 near the corner of 54th Street and Seventh Avenue. The police said it appeared that the confrontation began when Mr. Gener inadvertently bumped into a woman, who was with Mr. Jennings, as he walked along the sidewalk. A dispute between them grew heated, the police said, and Mr. Jennings stepped in and punched Mr. Gener, who fell to the pavement, cracking his skull. For more than a week, the motive of the crime remained murky. Mr. Gener had been found unconscious with his wallet, phone and jewelry. Detectives from the Police Department's hate crimes unit investigated the possibility that the attack was motivated by bias, but they found nothing to indicate the assault was a hate crime. Friends and relatives held vigils for Mr. Gener, including one at the Philippine Consulate General on Fifth Avenue. Mr. Gener, who is Filipino, remains hospitalized with a severe brain injury. On Monday, he was awake, alert and eager to talk about his work, writing freelance articles on theater and gay rights issues for a number of publications that have included The New York Times and The Miami Herald. His family said he was likely to need months of rehabilitation.