Painful Scars Linger From Melee

As James Wilson remembers it, the trouble started almost as soon as he walked into the party.

The Ventura resident, who is African American, says he arrived with his pregnant girlfriend and three other friends, all of them white. It was his 25th birthday. They came to celebrate and listen to a friend’s band.

But shortly after he entered the Manzanita Avenue house in Ventura, one of the guests shouted a racial epithet and led a group of men--described as members of a local white supremacist gang--in a violent attack, according to Wilson and the prosecutor who handled his case.

The assault a year ago today left Wilson physically scarred and financially ruined.

A large portion of his left ear was cut off when one of his assailants smashed a beer bottle over his head. His hearing and vision were permanently damaged during a “bottle-throwing melee,” in which other party-goers pelted Wilson with open bottles of beer, according to court documents.

The attack also left him $45,000 in debt, he said, because he could no longer pursue his work as an underwater oil-rig diver.

On Friday, Municipal Court Judge Roland Purnell sentenced one of the party-goers to 30 days in jail, to be served through work furlough. Prosecutors had asked for 180 days and three years’ formal probation.

“There is no justice,” Wilson said Friday, shaking his head at the irony that the sentence came just a day before his 26th birthday and the anniversary of the attack.

“I am not vengeful. I am not hateful,” he said.

But the incident convinced him that the place where he grew up is no longer a place where he can live without the fear of reprisal to himself or his family--particularly his 8-month-old daughter.

“I never thought that I’d leave Ventura,” Wilson said of his plans to move out of state. “But I don’t want her brought up here.”

Although a group of people was reportedly involved in the attack, authorities were only able to identify and arrest two men: Michael Morales and Jefferson Byrd.

Byrd was charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon and felony assault with mayhem, in addition to allegations that the attack was racially motivated and caused great bodily injury to Wilson.

*

After a 10-day trial last month, Byrd was convicted on one assault charge and a jury found the allegations to be true. His sentencing is set for later this month and he faces up to 10 years in prison.

Morales was charged only with one offense--felony assault with a deadly weapon. The jury found the crime was not a felony, however, and convicted him on a lesser charge of misdemeanor assault and battery.

In a report lodged into the court file, a probation officer recommended a 30-day jail sentence on the grounds that Morales did not instigate the fight and did not inflict the serious injuries to Wilson.

“There seems to be little or no connection between the defendant’s conduct and the physical harm that Mr. Wilson received,” the report states. “As such, this is being viewed as a bar fight; a mad party gone awry.”

Although the report states that Morales refused to help Wilson’s friends attempt to retrieve the severed ear, it also states that he now “empathizes” with Wilson and believes the attack was “totally unwarranted.” During the trial, his attorney argued that he was simply trying to break up the fight.

“He hopes the court will recognize that he was acting as ‘one of the good guys,’ ” the probation report said.

*

Wilson’s private attorney disagrees. He argues that both Morales and Byrd were equally involved and plans to push for a federal prosecution on the grounds that the attack was a racially motivated hate crime.

“A lot of the issues surrounding this thing just do not pass the smell test,” said attorney Randall Smith, who has been in contact with the FBI.

Smith has also filed a civil lawsuit against the young woman who threw the party and her parents, who were in Hawaii at the time.

“We are familiar with the case,” FBI agent Gary Auer said Friday, acknowledging that the circumstances of the allegations presented in Municipal Court could possibly be violations of federal civil rights laws.

Auer said the results of the state case, a summary of the allegations, and any further investigation by the bureau will be provided to the U.S. attorneys office and the Department of Justice.

Meanwhile, Wilson is attempting to get on with his life.

Four months after the attack, he returned to his job as a diver until dizziness sent him back to the doctor. Because of the ear injuries, he was advised not to go under water again.

He later worked as a security guard at a downtown nightclub but said he recently quit out of concern for his safety.

Today, he plans to celebrate his birthday with friends and to try not to think about the past too much. But with this birthday, and each to follow, he said the haunting reminder of what happened on Manzanita Avenue will always be present.

“How would I forget?”