In June, Emerson College professor Jabari Asim received a criminal citation in the mail for driving without a license. He said it was impossible, and wondered if his race was a factor.

Newton police Officer Gregory Helms said that he saw Asim driving—“He had that beard,’’ he said in Newton District Court on Tuesday—but it was actually his wife that was driving that day, The Boston Globe reports.

Helms said in court that he witnessed Asim driving with a “nervous’’ look, so he ran the vehicle’s plates and found that Asim, to whom the car was registered, had a license that was “denied/nonrenewable,’’ according to the Globe. Helms wasn’t able to find the vehicle, so he looked up Asim’s information, recognized him as the driver, and sent a citation to his home address.


GPS from Asim’s cell phone, eyewitness statements from colleagues, and store receipts proving that his wife Liana Asim was running errands in Newton at that time, and who has a valid driver’s license, showed that Asim couldn’t have been the driver, the Globe reports.

The clerk magistrate vacated the citation, according to the Globe, but Asim was still concerned by the officer’s actions.

Read the full Globe story here.

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