A Black Student Fights for His Life in Massachusetts

In 2008, Jason Vassell was a full-time biology student at University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Vassel, an African American, worked as a personal care assistant and tutored at-risk youth in his spare time, a job that required up to 40 hours of his time per week. He was popular with his classmates and professors, worked hard at school, and tried to give back to his community.

Early on the morning of Feb. 3, a fight with two drunken white men would change Vassell’s path forever, and today, he is facing up to 30 years in prison

On the morning in question, Vassell was in his dorm room in MacKimmie Hall with two other students, Lindsey Toper and Ashley Clancy, when they saw a white man looking in at them through the window. As Toper opened the window shade, the stranger started asking her to come hang out with him. She says she became “creeped out” by his demeanor, at which point Vassell went to the window and saw that there were actually two men. He asked them to go away, which is when the men yelled, “You’re a dirty nigger. Come out and fight,” according to Barbara Rutman, Vassell’s neighbor. Rutman said she was woken up by the screams.

Vassell responded, saying he wasn’t going to fight. At this, the two white men, Jonathan Bosse and John Bowes, smashed Vassell's window.

According to Clancy, who was in his dorm with Vassell, Vassell then called a friend, Vishan Chamanlal, for help and grabbed a pocket knife. Toper then called MacKimmie's housing office and “told them that the basement window had been broken but no one … [came] down to see what was going on.”

On her way to alert U-Mass housing staff, Toper saw Bosse and Bowes banging on the security door of the dorm, safely outside. But when Chamanlal showed up, Bosse and Bowes gained access by quietly following him inside, at which point they began screaming louder. Rutman attests that Jason “pulled out a knife and [told Bosse and Bowes] he didn’t want to use it and they should leave.” She says Bosse and Bowes continued to verbally assault Vassell and threaten him. To her “it looked like the first punch was thrown by the taller of the white males [Bosse].” A few things are certain: a fight broke out, Vassell’s nose was broken, and both Bosse and Bowes sustained minor stab wounds.

Police received a call around 4 a.m. reporting a violent incident at MacKimmie Hall. Several officers from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst police department responded to the scene and discovered two white suspects yelling and banging on a security door, their clothing bloody. On the other side of the door was Vassell, who showed several facial and head injuries.

Sergeant Moore took statements from both Bosse and Bowes, who claimed that the fight began outside when Vassell and an “unkown Latino male” began yelling racial slurs at them. They also said Vassell attacked them with a knife while wearing a ski mask. An Officer Greene would later note that Bosse and Bowes “smelled strongly of an alcoholic beverage and were slurring their speech when trying to give their statements.” According to hospital records, Bowes’ blood alcohol content was .18 percent and Bosse’s was .26 percent, well above the national legal limit for driving.

It is unclear why, but at 5:45 a.m., while Lt. Robert Thrasher was receiving an update on the incident, one of the officers told him, “It looks like a drug deal. Some deal was going on. It wasn’t a normal, random thing. This guy was waiting in the hallway for these other guys to come.” Thrasher then referred to Jason as a “black asshole” and a “donkey,” according to a telephone transcript obtained by the defense.*

Police hauled Bowes, Bosse, and Vassell into the station. Vassell then spent the next three days in jail, labeled as a “dangerous person,” while Bowes and Bosse were both allowed to leave.

Ultimately, Bowes was charged with disorderly conduct, a civil rights violation resulting in bodily injury, and assault and battery to intimidate with bodily injury. Unlike Vassell, however, he was not detained as a dangerous person, despite a lengthy history of violence. Bosse was never charged with anything.

After being released, Vassell came to the police station with his family intending to press charges against his assailants; he was instead arrested for two counts of armed assault with intent to murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon.

In the two years since that night in February, Vassell has been living in a legal limbo, fighting a 30-year prison term. Now, attorneys with the ACLU of Massachusetts are defending him. The ACLU argues that Vassell was a victim of selective prosecution by law enforcement authorities and are trying to determine if his race provoked unfair felony charges. For its part, the Massachusetts prosecutor contends that Vassell is a danger to society and should be convicted on at least two counts of aggravated assault.

Though Vassell is facing far more time than Bowes and Bosse have ever done, police records show that both men have extensive histories of legal trouble.

On April 29, 2003, Bowes hit a man with the blunt end of hatchet, giving him a three-inch laceration to his forehead. On Jan. 22, 2004, he and two other intoxicated adolescents forced a 12-year-old boy to flee after harassing him for money—Bowes was arrested that time but never charged. A few months later, Bowes was associated with the killing and mutilation of turkeys at a nature museum, but, again, was not charged with anything. And later in 2004, he was found with a substantial amount of alcohol in a car while still underage. The next four years show similar incidents; in one, Bowes admitted to pouring beer on a 15-year-old girl whom he regularly harassed at school.

Bosse meanwhile once threatened one of his teachers and, at one point, assaulted the horse of a mounted police officer before punching the cop in the leg.

Bowes and Bosse have also worked in tandem. They were found in possession of alcohol many times and once admitted to destroying nine mailboxes together. On Feb. 11, 2005, the two were part of a group of white males who beat up a black high school student. The pair also used fraudulent checks to purchase high-end mini-scooters.

In most of these cases, Bowes and Bosse weren't arrested or charged with anything. And the few times they were, they received probation.

Vassell, on the other hand, had no criminal record before the night he came across Bowes and Bosse. Despite this fact, after he was charged, Umass Amherst told him to withdraw. (The school did not wish to comment for this article.)

Soon after Vassell’s arrest, friends, family, and professors wrote letters to the district attorney, all of which spoke to Vassell’s virtues as a person. Many concerned citizens also joined the organization Justice for Jason, which has had a constant presence at every court proceeding related to the case. The group believes the disparity in charges in the case is racially motivated.

Were that the case, it wouldn’t be unprecedented. Blacks are vastly overrepresented in the U.S. prison population. As of 2009, black men aged 30 to 34 have a 20.9 percent chance of having been imprisoned in their lifetime, with nearly half of all prison inmates identifying as black. What’s more, according to the Created Equal report, released last year by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, African Americans are six times likelier than white non-Latinos to be arrested for murder, and 3.4 times as likely to be arrested for aggravated assault.

Barbara O’Connor, police chief of University of Massachusetts–Amherst police department at the time of the incident, believes the Vassell case has been over-politicized and publicized. O'Connor believes the incident was nothing other than a “street fight.” Though she says she was adamant that Bowes be charged with a hate crime, she thought that Vassell needed to be charged as well. “I think in part, Jason was a victim. But the elements were overwhelming that there was no defense theory.”

As for Jason, his life is still on hold. “This is a big chunk out of his young life,” says attorney Luke Ryan, speaking to a crowd of community supporters at a recent hearing. Jasmin Torrejon, a friend of Vassell's and a member of Justice for Jason says, “It hasn’t been easy on his family, but they are really encouraged by the support of the community.”

Rachel Antony-Levine is a junior at University of Massachusetts–Amherst studying economics and Latin American studies.

*This originally said "according to witnesses." Campus Progress regrets the error.

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