For release on March 7, 2016 CONTACT:
James Gibbons-Shapiro
Assistant District Attorney
(408) 792-2985 DA’S OFFICE SEEKS JAIL TIME FOR SJSU STUDENTS WHO FORCED LOCK ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENT The District Attorney’s Office is asking a judge to sentence to 120 days in jail the San Jose State students who were convicted of forcing a bike lock around an African-American student’s neck.
Prosecutors are also requesting that the Hon. Thang Barrett order the three students to work 50 hours of community service at an organization serving the African-American community. They would also have to complete a class on racial or ethnic sensitivity, African-American history or culture.
Sentencing for Colin Warren, 20, Logan Beaschler, 20, and Joseph Brett Bombardner, 21, is scheduled for March 14 for their battery convictions. Last month, a jury found one defendant - Bomgardner - not guilty of a hate crime, and could not agree on those charges against the other two defendants. Faced with the jury’s decision and an unlikely chance of conviction, the District Attorney’s Office has decided not to retry the two defendants on hate crime charges.
Said District Attorney Jeff Rosen of the victim: “We support D.J. Williams as he completes his education and continues his fight against bigotry. We hope that the judge will consider all of the evidence in this case and send a forceful message to the defendants, to this young and resilient victim, and to the rest of Santa Clara County: Prejudice is not a prank.” The harassment against the then-17-year-old first year student began in August of 2013 and lasted through October, inside their on-campus suite. The defendants scrawled racial epithets, mocked Martin Luther King Jr., and posted a confederate flag on the shared suite wall. The defendants also nicknamed the victim “Three-Fifths” - apparently referring to a formula that counted slaves as “three-fifths of all other persons.” When the victim objected, he said the defendants resorted to calling him “Fraction.”
The District Attorney's Office is also asking that the defendants be put on two years of formal probation. # # #
James Gibbons-Shapiro
Assistant District Attorney
(408) 792-2985 DA’S OFFICE SEEKS JAIL TIME FOR SJSU STUDENTS WHO FORCED LOCK ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENT The District Attorney’s Office is asking a judge to sentence to 120 days in jail the San Jose State students who were convicted of forcing a bike lock around an African-American student’s neck.
Prosecutors are also requesting that the Hon. Thang Barrett order the three students to work 50 hours of community service at an organization serving the African-American community. They would also have to complete a class on racial or ethnic sensitivity, African-American history or culture.
Sentencing for Colin Warren, 20, Logan Beaschler, 20, and Joseph Brett Bombardner, 21, is scheduled for March 14 for their battery convictions. Last month, a jury found one defendant - Bomgardner - not guilty of a hate crime, and could not agree on those charges against the other two defendants. Faced with the jury’s decision and an unlikely chance of conviction, the District Attorney’s Office has decided not to retry the two defendants on hate crime charges.
Said District Attorney Jeff Rosen of the victim: “We support D.J. Williams as he completes his education and continues his fight against bigotry. We hope that the judge will consider all of the evidence in this case and send a forceful message to the defendants, to this young and resilient victim, and to the rest of Santa Clara County: Prejudice is not a prank.” The harassment against the then-17-year-old first year student began in August of 2013 and lasted through October, inside their on-campus suite. The defendants scrawled racial epithets, mocked Martin Luther King Jr., and posted a confederate flag on the shared suite wall. The defendants also nicknamed the victim “Three-Fifths” - apparently referring to a formula that counted slaves as “three-fifths of all other persons.” When the victim objected, he said the defendants resorted to calling him “Fraction.”
The District Attorney's Office is also asking that the defendants be put on two years of formal probation. # # #