San Jose State students accused of tormenting black roommate are charged with hate crimes

 
SAN JOSE -- First, his white roommates nicknamed him "Three-fifths," referring to the way the government once counted blacks as just a fraction of a person. When he protested, they dubbed him "Fraction."

Then they outfitted the four-bedroom dormitory suite they shared with a Confederate flag. They locked him in his room. They wrote the "N-word" on a dry-erase board in the living room. They fastened a bicycle lock around his neck and told him they lost the keys, then tried it again a few weeks later.

It may sound like something out of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. But police reports indicate it happened last month in the Obama era to a black student at San Jose State University, a liberal campus boasting statues of Olympic athletes making a black power salute.

Late Wednesday, prosecutors filed misdemeanor hate-crime and battery charges against three of the student's roommates over the alleged hazing, which has sparked anger in the community and on the diverse campus. The men are Logan Beaschler, 18, of Bakersfield; Joseph Bomgardner, 19, of Clovis; and Colin Warren, 18, of Woodacre (Marin County).

"This is outrageous," said the Rev. Jethroe Moore II, president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley chapter of the NAACP. "This form of bullying cannot be tolerated."

The students were not available for comment and it was unclear late Wednesday whether they had legal representation. They could face penalties ranging from probation to a year in jail if convicted, as well as university discipline.

University spokeswoman Pat Lopes Harris said the incident is still under investigation, and no decision has been made yet on whether the students will be sanctioned.

The alleged harassment began in late August when the freshman and seven other young white men -- all assigned to live together -- moved into the four-bedroom, on-campus suite. Eight weeks later, in mid-October, the freshman's parents noticed a Confederate flag draped over a cardboard cutout of Elvis in the living room of the suite and a dry-erase board with the "N-word" scrawled on it, and reported it via housing officials to campus police. Two of the young men were immediately transferred to a different dorm.

But at least two residential assistants were aware before then that one of the roommates had tacked a Confederate flag to a bedroom window. They asked the young men to take it down "so it could not be seen by the general public," but did not investigate any further, according to university police reports and campus-housing department memos.

The freshman, now 18, said in a brief telephone interview that he's never experienced this kind of mistreatment, even though he was one of only a few black students at his high school in Santa Cruz. This newspaper is not naming him at his parents' request because of the ongoing campus investigation.

"I'm still in shock," he said, noting he tried not to spend much time in the suite and didn't report the situation to campus police in hopes the conduct would stop. "I tried not to dwell on this. But my family is upset and I'm upset."

He told university police he always locked his door at night because he was scared of most of the other students living in the four-bedroom suite. He also didn't feel safe studying in his own room and believes his grades weren't as good as they could be as a result.

The young men acknowledged during police interviews that they incessantly harassed the then-17-year-old, according to the reports. But they downplayed the incidents as mere "pranks" and "jokes," denying their actions were racist.

University police, however, recommended that District Attorney Jeff Rosen file the case as a hate crime.

Prosecutor Erin West emphatically agreed, saying, "The District Attorney's Office has no tolerance for those who criminally prey on others because they are different."

Police reports, separate documents prepared by housing officials and photographs document the freshman's ordeal. The events allegedly occurred after everyone in the suite attended a two-day orientation session this past summer that included sensitivity training.

After the nicknames, there followed a series of coercive incidents, including barring the freshman's bedroom door with furniture several times to prevent him from coming out.

The first time they wrestled him to the ground, they succeeded in getting the metal bike lock around his neck, the suspects themselves told police. The second time, he managed to evade them, but he told police he got slightly banged up in the process.

One time, they removed the doorknob from inside a closet, and knowing that the freshman was claustrophobic, tried to induce him via a series of post-it messages around the suite to step inside it. One note referred to the closet as "the enrichment center," and included a homophobic slur and the insult, "Eat ---- and die."

Investigators also found Nazi symbols in the apartment, including a picture of Adolf Hitler, the "SS" lightning bolt symbol and a swastika. They also discovered pictures of pentagrams, apparently intended to alarm the freshman, who is Christian.

After the freshman's father talked to the roommates and reported the matter, the freshman received what police characterized as a "sarcastic apology note," signed only "The Residents." The note mentions "the Beloved Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr." and urges the freshman to let bygones be bygones. It also contains a warning of sorts in the postscript: "The Residents have welcomed you, it is not advised to ignore the call of The Residents."

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ICE CITY FC said:

Hope they get the book thrown at them and have their lives ruined by the justice system.

Didnt know there were misdemeanor hate crimes they should be charged with fellonies.

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Nawzlew said:

From SJ and have a lot of friends that go there.

This is disgusting

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rrlegend said:

Ain't no way , would've went down swinging

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Gordonson said:

ALL of them would have to be line-backers for us to not be scrapping regularly over this nonsense

These aren't mere pranks son, those were outright sadistic actions against somebody who didn't sound like they did anything to provoke it (to be fair, I don't know this for sure; I just can't imagine dude doing anything serious enough for this to be retaliation)

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So, one of the guys is a really good friend mine. I'm not here to defend him in any capacity, but to hopefully give some insight on the situation. This sounds exactly like something my friend would do. All throughout high school he indeed said mean things meant to be funny, he indeed is the kind of guy to barricade your room with furniture, and I'm not surprised he put a bike lock around the kids neck (for less than a minute I've read, haven't talked to him yet though, may have been worse or not as bad). He did stupid **** like this and honestly - sometimes it was funny. Don't deny that at some point in your life you haven't made fun of someone or at the very least pranked them in some capacity and thought it was funny. One time I can remember is getting in our school's sports van and locking a kid in for a minute or two - hilarious and we let him out and bought him some lunch later on. I'll admit that it could have gone farther than a prank and become true bully like behavior, but we had no intention of harming him or being truly mean. I can even recall a time early on in high school where he made a truly mean comment to me that ended in calling me gay/******. Teenagers do that all the time, but for some reason it seemed mean spirited. I told him off and to shut the **** up and that obviously he wasn't my friend if he was going to treat me like ****. He later came to me and apologized, but at that point I really didn't care and didn't want to have anything to do with him. But the fact that he so rarely apologizes for the things he does helped me realize he was being sincere. He does stupid ****, and as much of a ******g cliche this is and what no one wants to hear, he really does have a good heart and is a good kid. He's really not an emotional friend, and I thought he just never cared too much about anyone. But after I left for school this August, he called me out of the blue (hadn't talked with him since the summer) in October and wanted to catch up. He was really glad to talk to me, and told me that he really did miss my company. It was eye opening, and showed me that he really did appreciate me as a friend, and wasn't some cold heartless punk. I know exactly what happened to the victim in this recent event at SJSU. It was a joke. All their dumbass shenanigans were jokes that they thought were harmless, and I know him well and I'm sure my friend would have welcomed the kid to mess with him and pull some pranks back. However, they took it too far. The jokes turned physical, and after this kid had enough, they did it a second time. They got caught pulling stupid and insensitive pranks hoping that the kid would just take it as harmless jokes, and hoped the kid would reciprocate the joking. But there were three of them and only one of him. I feel sorry for the kid/victim, and I hope he can spend the rest of the year not being bothered and going on to be successful. My friend is a kind, caring, human being with a penchant for pranks that just took it too far this time and got caught. While I hope he gets his just punishment, as a friend I feel sad that he decided to go this far and **** up his life over messing with one kid. Once again this is not defending my friend, but a reminder that these people are human beings, and they make mistakes. Stupid ******g mistakes that jeopardize other people and make them feel uncomfortable, but still just mistakes. Good luck to the victim and I wish him well, and maybe this will teach my friend a lesson to respect people.

TL;DR One of the guys is my friend, he's stupid, but not heartless

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BLASTERCOMBO said:

^^^ yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah no

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youngdoc said:

I was shocked that this happened at a school in the Bay area until I saw where in Cali the kids were from

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