BANGOR – Police on Wednesday said a brutal beating led to the November death of a Bangor man, not a fall from a second-story balcony, as initial reports indicated.

Bruce Mann, 43, remained behind bars at the Penobscot County Jail on Wednesday night after a brief appearance in Bangor’s 3rd District Court, where he faced a manslaughter charge in the Nov. 9 death of 40-year-old Jack Sears.

During the afternoon proceedings, Judge Ronald Russell set Mann’s bail at $20,000 in property or $5,000 cash, and scheduled a probable cause hearing in the case for Jan. 10, 2002.

Mann, standing shackled in the small, downtown courtroom, was not required to enter a plea to the felony manslaughter charge, which carries with it a maximum 40 years in prison.

Police arrested Mann on Tuesday, accusing the transient of beating to death Sears after a night of heavy drinking with several other people at Sears’ second-floor apartment at 217 Broadway.

According to police affidavits filed Wednesday in the Bangor court, Mann reportedly told one witness that he “kicked [Sears] and stuff and crushed his face … with his foot,” and “did do damage to him,” after an altercation on the building’s first floor.

The state Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Sears’ death was caused by blunt force trauma to the head.

Witnesses, reportedly fearing reprisal from Mann, initially told police that an intoxicated Sears tripped over a cat and fell from the second-floor landing to the first-floor entryway of the apartment building during the late-night hours of Nov. 8.

Subsequent witness interviews, however, revealed that Mann brutally beat Sears after an argument, police said.

After the alleged beating, one witness reportedly took the injured Sears upstairs to bed, police said.

The next morning, Sears was taken by ambulance to Eastern Maine Medical Center, where he died after undergoing surgery for his head injury.

Before his arrest, Mann reportedly was living at the Acadia Recovery Center on Indiana Avenue, but often stayed at Sears’ Broadway apartment, police said.

Mann’s attorney, Julio DeSanctis of Orrington, said that it was unlikely his client, who is indigent, would be able to post bail.

“Five hundred dollars may as well be $5 million,” DeSanctis said outside the courtroom.

The case is likely to go to the Penobscot County grand jury before the Jan. 10, 2002, probable cause hearing, prosecutors said.