See: justiceforjason.org. Here is the background on how two drunken white men shattered UMass student Jason Vassell's window, taunted him with racial slurs and threats of violence, stormed in his dorm building, broke his nose and got a slap on the wrist while Mr. Vassell has the proverbial book thrown at him for using a pocket knife to fend them off. Read the comments for more, and a comment from Vassell's Attorney David P. Hoose.
Here's today's WBZ coverage.
Boston (AP) -- A single justice on the state's highest court has ruled that a former University of Massachusetts student charged with stabbing two men in his dorm can see five years worth of prosecutor's records.
Lawyers for Jason Vassell requested the records from the Northwestern District Attorney's office to determine whether there is a pattern of racially-tinged prosecutions.
******
NOTE: This is all part of an ongoing investigation and report that TOUCH 106.1 FM will be conducting into the discriminatory and otherwise malfeasant properties of high level government agencies, including Prosecutors and the Division of Banks. We will be at every Court hearing and we will tell the Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth.
I might add that I verified with Jason Vassell's attorney David P. Hoose that:
ReplyDeletea) The State never even charged his assailants John Bose and Jonathan Bosse with malicious destruction of property (they broke his window from the outside before they rushed inside the door to attack him) or criminal trespass even though he did not invite them in and they were not UMass students. They were heavily drinking (probably drunk but alas not charged with public intox) and, unlike Vassell, they have criminal records;
b) He agrees that this is a Castle Doctrine case that never should have been brought in the first place. Read MGL 278 8A here. Jason Vassell was sitting at home, minding his business when two drunken, angry white men broke his window and then entered his building and hit him, breaking his nose. He counters with a pocket knife and now faces an assortment of charges that potentially total 30 years in prison.
Judge Carhart ordered several years of racial data released but the Prosecutor appealed that to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court demanded further findings.
I have a call pending to District Attorney Scheibel's office; she is attending meetings in Boston today so I will post up when she returns my call.
*****
Note: That was two (2) weeks ago, I have telephoned her twice since and no response. We shall see if her office takes this all the way to the Full Bench.
Speaking of videos isn't it interesting how when abusive entities like Citibank (listen here) and Prosecutor Scheibel claim they have video evidence but it never gets shown?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/lawyer_for_jason_vassell_says.html
drkwingduck
Posted by drkwingduck
February 19, 2009, 11:27PM
it's been said before: wait for the surveillance tape to come out.
as much evidence as there is already that Jason was selectively prosecuted based on his race (and that Bowes and Bosse were treated with unparalleled leniency because of their race), the tape is most likely the nail in the coffin for the prosecution's shoddy case that Jason was the offender.
KCIM: your idea that Jason "lunged first" came from Dunphy Farris' statements made in court yesterday. Those statements are supposedly based on the surveillance footage. The same surveillance footage that Jason's defense lawyers claim clearly shows Bowes landing a nose-shattering punch on Jason's face first (followed by more punches from Bowes, several from Bosse, and after all this came Jason's defensive actions)
just saying, that Jason attacked first is not only the prosecution's opinion, it's also not backed up by any eye witness report from the night of the incident. Granted, the tape could hold some answers. What the DA says is by no means the truth.
From Judge Carhart's 7 Oct. 2009 ORDER clarifying his preliminary ORDER compelling production of the 5 years of similar cases. It was this ORDER that was unsuccessfully appealed by the DA's Office:
ReplyDelete*******
In a 7 May 2006 case a black man named Demian Vennell went to aid another black man David Gern, who was being beaten by several white men.
The surveillance camera showed Vennell pulling people away from the crowd and a white male allegedly hit with a flashlight by Vennell claimed that he fell (he was highly intoxicated).
None of the whites were charged with anything and 4/5ths of the arrests that night were black men.
*******
Sounds par for the course.