Playing To Lose
Why Is David Margoliash, Charged in the First-Night-of-Ramadan Assault on the Islamic Center of North Marin, Being Given A "Day Pass" by Republican Judge Kelly Simmons To Hang Out With Novato Police?
Last week, there were three separate hearings in "People vs. Margoliash" at Marin County Superior Court. The case stems from a March 11 incident wherein the Defendant, San Rafael resident David J. Margoliash, is alleged to have terrorized congregants at the Islamic Center of North Marin, located in Novato. Despite allegedly having brutally beaten a member of the Islamic Center while yelling "I'm going to kill you", Margoliash's only felony charge in the incident was use of "tear gas and tear gas weapons."
For reasons not explained by the court, at least two of this week's hearings were not properly or fully open to the public. When, on Friday, the public was at last permitted into Courtroom J for the final hearing of the week, Judge Kelly Simmons, a Schwarzenegger appointee who had previously reversed her initial eagerness to grant Margoliash an O.R. release, made a startling announcement:
As a result of a conference between herself, the Deputy D.A., and Meredith McGuire of the Public Defender's Office, there would be a "day pass" granted to Defendant Margoliash, currently held in the Marin County Jail. Thus, on Tuesday, Margoliash is scheduled to be released into the care of Novato Police Detective Joshua Wax. There was no explanation from Judge Simmons for why such an unusual "pass" was being granted. Bear in mind that the Novato Police Department is the agency that determined, with apparently zero investigation, that there was no basis for hate crimes charges in Margoliash's assault on the Islamic Center.
Who Among Us Hasn't Ditched A Toy Gun After Terrorizing An Islamic Center?
An explanation provided in the hallway outside of Courtroom J after the hearing is that Margoliash needed the day pass to help the Novato police locate a gun which Margoliash had tossed away after the attack on the Islamic Center. Margoliash has allegedly claimed that the gun was only a toy gun, not a real gun. This raises a somewhat obvious question: who, on God's green earth, needs to throw away a toy gun? But it also raises some equally obvious questions about the lack of investigation by the Novato Police Department — and about favorability to a white defendant with a lengthy criminal record involved in what, in any other Bay Area county, would at least be investigated as a hate crime.
DA Frugoli Isn't Responding Because You're Not Supposed To Know Muslims Were Attacked in Marin
Having been given no official explanation of the need for the "day pass", I contacted DA Frugoli, since DDA Abriel, assigned to the case, was not responding to questions this time around. I also contacted Joshua Wax, of the Novato Police Department, into whose care Margoliash will be delivered. I wanted to confirm why Margoliash was being given a day pass out of jail to spend time with the Novato Police.
Neither Frugoli, nor anyone from the DA's office, nor NPD's Joshua Wax have responded to my emails or prior questions. That means we also have no followup on whether Deputy DA Abriel ever looked into, as she had promised, any connection between Margoliash and the Marin County pro-Israel WhatsApp group (MarinStandsWithIsrael) that was pursuing concealed carry weapons permits in response to peaceful student protesters. That WhatsApp group was reported to the San Rafael Police Chief David Spiller — now conveniently on leave — by San Rafael City Councilmember Rachel Kertz, who was also part of the WhatsApp group. CM Kertz has declined to answer any subsequent questions about which other law enforcement agencies, if any, she reported the matter to.
Ferris Bueller's Day Pass
I reached out to multiple California criminal defense attorneys with questions about the "day pass" arrangement and received answers that, in total, suggested that the judge's decision was uncommon. A sampling:
Attorney 1: Immediately wrote back: "wtf??" During a subsequent phone conversation, Attorney #1 asked, "What are police for? They're supposed to do this. This should have been part of the initial investigation. If anything, the defense would send an investigator."
Attorney 2: "Releasing an inmate to look for evidence is NOT something that happens. The defense can send an investigator."
Attorney 3: "I've heard of such things." (Given the decades Attorney #3 has been in practice, this does not generally comport with the day pass being any sort of "routine occurrence".)
But Don't Just Ask Attorneys, Ask The People From Over-policed Communities
For additional context, I checked in with a Black Marin resident to ask how likely he thought a "day pass" would be for, say, a Black or Latino defendant. His response? "Oh, hell no! That would never happen." A Latino resident agreed that they had not seen such "day passes" provided to members of the Latino community, then added: 'so, this Margoliash guy must be pretty connected."
Of course, Marin is a place of unusual privilege if you have the "right" pigmentation – or cash, or connections. Which is to say that Marin is very typical of the United States, except that the disparities are heightened here. Marin is shrouded in layers of secrecy that would not be tolerated elsewhere, and presided over by unelected judges who repeatedly deny that race, class, or cronyism play any role in their decisions. But I and others have sat through enough hearings for workingclass Black and Latino defendants to know that the judges’ claim is inaccurate, at best. The problem of discrimination in Marin is rooted in the DA office, and is facilitated by judges at the top and police at the bottom. The DA's gross mishandling of the attack on the Islamic Center of North Marin is simply an extension of that.
What The Marin I-J Isn't Telling You, Volume 23,637:
Unreported by the local Marin media, including the “paper-of-record” Marin Independent-Journal, is that in the long list of Margoliash's felonies and other criminal charges, there was at least one previous gun-related felony nearly four years prior to the attack on the Islamic Center of North Marin. On April 4, 2019, Margoliash had been convicted of "Knowingly Funish(ing) False Info For Electronic Firearm Transfer PC 28250(b)(2).” Among the terms of his probation was included this, in all caps: "DEFENDANT MAY NOT USE, POSSESS OR TRANSPORT ANY WEAPONS INCLUDING FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION." That three-year probation was scheduled to end in 2022, which means he had plenty of time to get accustomed to not using, possessing, or transporting any weapons.
Further, it appears from the available record that there were enough prior serious felonies to have made Margoliash's alleged attack at the Islamic Center a potential "third strike". That ratio also went unreported by the Marin I-J, which is interesting because those felonies are listed in the brief five-page complaint filed by the DA, which, given its double spacing, only takes two minutes to read.
(Neither did the I-J report the matter of the pro-Israel WhatsApp group's concealed carry weapons permits pursuit reported to police by CM Kertz. When I spoke with one of the I-J reporters on Friday, he indicated he hadn't even known about it. But if he had known about it, would he have reported it? Per Public Health Officer Matt Willis' public statement in 2023, the I-J has an "official partnership" with the County. So if the County doesn't want you to know about it, there's a good chance the I-J won't report it.)
So Much Open Space; So Few Degrees of Separation
We who grew up in Marin know how few degrees of separation there are between anyone: Margoliash's grandfather was the first Board Member elected to Rodef Shalom, where Councilmember Kertz remains active, and he was the first President (pro-tem) at Kol Shofar. It is difficult to imagine a Marin without Sam Margoliash and his many good works. And in such a small county it is entirely possible that David Margoliash was linked to members of the 300-person WhatsApp group. Thus it is worth considering the possibility that his choice to attack the Islamic Center on the first night of Ramadan (a choice implying significant intentionality) was incited by the fear and rage that apparently took over the group in the aftermath of October 7.
If anything, that seems like potentially exculpatory evidence his public defender should have investigated. But she didn't need to, because the DA had already indicated that they were playing to lose by undercharging the assaults, and not investigating hate crimes allegations.
Move Along, Nothing To See Here
It is nearly impossible to sit through the Margoliash hearings and not surmise that the DA and Judge Simmons simply want this case moved along quickly and forgotten – not because they care about the troubled David Margoliash, but because investigating Margoliash for hates crimes allegations would involve a larger investigation of the County's deep-seated Islamophobia and racism. As I have pointed out before, and will continue to, the County's elected officials are quick to react to non-violent antisemitic flyers and nazi stickers, as they should. But when a violent physical and chemical assault was committed against Muslims on the first night of Ramadan at the only Islamic Center in North Marin, there was – and still is – complete and deafening silence.
Councilmember Kertz' Anti-Ceasefire Email
Where does our elected leaders' silence leave Marin's Muslim and Arab Americans, who have been even greater targets of discrimination and government persecution than Jewish Americans? A recent tranche of disclosable documents released by the County's Legal Counsel shows that, just 12 days after CM Kertz had to alert the San Rafael Police of the concealed carry permit enthusiasts in the "MarinStandsWithIsrael" WhatsApp group, she sent a curious email to the Marin County Board of Supervisors urging against a ceasefire resolution.
Kertz' November 28 email asserts that "pro-ceasefire/pro-Palestine" comments "puts all Jews at risk due to the antisemitic nature of these comments." Her sign-off indicates that she is the Marin Chair of Bay Area Network of Jewish Officials (BANJO.) At the time of Kertz' November 28 email, many Jewish Marinites had already pleaded with the board for a ceasefire. Were the pro-Palestinian pleadings by Jewish Marin residents "anti-semitic"? Did their pleas for a ceasefire – which would have benefited Israelis and Palestinians alike – place "all Jews at risk"?
Timing Is Everything
At the time of Kertz's November 28, 2023 anti-ceasefire email, the death toll for Palestinian civilians in Gaza stood at over 13,000, of which over 5,000 were children. Today, that total number has climbed above 34,000, of which over 13,000 were children. By that date, a six-year-old Palestinian American boy and his mother had both been stabbed in the suburbs of Chicago simply because they were Palestinian. In the following months, Palestinian Americans continued to be terrorized, shunned, fired from their jobs, and even shot simply for speaking Arabic or wearing keffiyehs. And yet, as evidenced by documents released by County Counsel and by a surfeit of public statement by elected officials in Marin, the focus has been largely on concerns about anti-semitism, with apparently little to zero mention of Islamophobia or the routine discrimination in Marin County against Muslims.
Meanwhile, Margoliash's “day pass” was announced at the end of a week that saw violent police beatdowns of students, reporters, and professors at universities across the nation merely for protesting Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza. Despite police brutality, the students and the professors still returned to protest, and to support one another. There is a reckoning in this country right now, a nervous and hopeful sense that it's not too late to do the right thing. Doing the right thing means change has to happen at the highest levels of government, and at our local level.
If Margoliash's assault on the Islamic Center had at least been properly investigated as a hate crime, it would not necessarily punish Margoliash unduly. But a proper hate crimes investigation would at least help the County to grapple with the larger social forces that may very well have incited Margoliash to make the decisions he did.
It's not too late to do that.
©️2024 Eva Chrysanthe
Notes:
Kertz’s November 28 email:
Additional Note:
In reference to last week’s article, I was able to speak with Jahmeer Reynolds of “Marin County Cooperation Team”, and I am still awaiting promised documents from his office.