Good piece by Marcos Breton this morning in the Sacramento Bee on James Marchbanks. Mr. Marchbanks if you recall was cleared in late January of wrongdoing in a case in which three students in his drama class claimed that he made a bomb threat.
He served four days in jail and faced an $150,000 bail. At the time of his release, the DA’s office did not file charges pending further investigation.
Mr. Marchbanks Attorney, Oliver Northup told the Vanguard in January,
“This was the last meeting of the quarter, it was a time for student evaluations for the teaching assistant were turned in. Mr. Marchbanks trying to make a little humor or a little excitement said this would be the last time that he would see them and he had something for them, something along the lines of a bomb.”
Later three students filed the complaint and told the police that a bomb threat had been made.
However, quickly thirteen of the sixteen students signed a letter that claimed that they understood that the incident was a joke and that Mr. Marchbanks was being metaphorical.
Marcos Breton writes this morning:
” He didn’t deserve to go to jail. He shouldn’t be marked for life on the Internet.
At worst, James Marchbanks uttered regrettable words. The punishment for the UC Davis graduate teaching assistant was severe: four days in a jail cell.
Google Marchbanks’ name and there is a scarlet letter of stories containing allegations that do not hold up to scrutiny.
It’s time his name is cleared.”
As Breton indicates, the UC Davis police had a choice of how to react in this case particularly since as he put it, “there was never any mystery for cops about what was in the envelope: It contained course evaluation forms that students commonly fill out on the final day of fall term.”
As Marcos Breton writes, despite the fact that 13 of the 16 students told administrators that Marchbanks was using a figure of speech, despite the fact that several indicated that the students complaining had often butted heads with him, despite the fact that his professors defended him, the UC Davis police and university officials have never acknowledged a mistake.
Writes Breton:
“Through it all, university officials have been unapologetic. They justified the response by citing the Virginia Tech massacre, in which 32 people were gunned down by Seung-hui Cho, a mentally disturbed undergraduate student.
But comparing Marchbanks to Seung-hui Cho – even indirectly – is reckless.
Seung-hui Cho had a history of menacing behavior on campus. A judge had deemed him a danger to himself and others.”
When the Vanguard spoke to Lt. Nader Oweis after charges were dropped, he continued to defend the arrest. “From the information that we have received at the time,” said Lt. Oweis, “we took that to judicial review to obtain a warrant for his arrest. So we took the information that we had an obtained an arrest warrant which led to his arrest.”
From the universities standpoint there was a history. “You have to understand two students within a year or so that explosives in their dormitories,” he said. “So just like anybody that would make a complaint about a bomb or some type of explosive device, we’re going to take those reports very seriously.”
Some have suggested that because Mr. Marchbanks is African-American he might have been treated differently. Breton argues it is simply because he was different.
“Marchbanks has no criminal record. A soft-spoken man of 35, he has lived out of his 1979 Dodge van while attending classes at Davis.
He sometimes doesn’t make eye contact and has been described as socially awkward.
Did being different speed his path to jail?”
Marchbanks never returned the Vanguard’s calls and emails, but in a recent interview with another publication he indicated that people need to remember the context of a situation when they draw inferences about meaning and intent.
“It’s an acting class,” he said. “If I was in an airport or a math class, you wouldn’t say things like that.”
The District Attorney’s office here in Yolo County is notorious for very rarely if ever dropping charges, especially charges pursued as vigorously by law enforcement as this one was.
Thus it is really telling to read in Mr. Breton’s column that Jeff Reisig, the Yolo County District Attorney, is recommending that Mr. Marchbanks file a motion that seeks “factual innocence.”
This would be an effort to clear his name and as Mr. Reisig told the Bee, “Upon reviewing the facts, we would have no objection to that motion.”
As Breton points out, Mr. Marchbanks is not seeking a lawsuit here, he just wants his good name back.
I will go further, I think that UC Davis has an obligation to issue a formal apology to Mr. Marchbanks and to clear his name. But I won’t hold my breath on that one.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
I agree with Greenwald’s opinion in this article.
(That’s a first)