Last Thursday, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan announced that she was dropping the conspiracy charges against Brandeis Computer Science doctoral student Jessie Lowell. The charges date back to January 2015, when 28 protesters affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement blocked parts of Interstate 93.

Lowell was among 18 protesters to be arrested in Medford, and the group became known as the “Somerville 18.”

Lowell said in an interview with the Justice that she was there as a street medic, providing aid to protesters who had gotten injured while on the highway. “I wasn’t involved with planning, I wasn’t locked down and I wasn’t on the road, I was there to provide first aid, and advocacy around first aid to people who were there,” she said, according to a Jan. 19, 2015 Justice article.

“Racism is a very important issue, and the way black people are treated in this country is a very important issue, and as a white person, I think I have a moral responsibility to do something about them,” Lowell was quoted in a March 31 WGBH News article as saying.

Lowell had been charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct, in addition to the conspiracy charges. A jury acquitted Lowell of the first two charges in March, according to the WGBH article. Lowell was represented by National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee’s Mark Stern throughout the ordeal. “The prosecution of one medic for observing police, and being available to provide aid … has now involved, on two misdemeanor charges, what I’d image [sic] would be tens of thousands of dollars in public resources,” Stern was quoted in the WGBH article as saying.

Lowell attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her undergraduate degree, and studied at Tufts University and Northeastern University before attending Brandeis, according to the Justice article.

—Abby Patkin