The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Radical Vegan Transgender Cult Update: Three ‘Zizians’ Make Court Appearance

Posted on | January 17, 2026 | No Comments

Jack ‘Ziz’ LaSota enters courthouse Friday

Let’s begin by giving full credit to Andy Ngo who, as he says, has “been reporting on the cult for over a year and broke the story that linked the homicides together a year ago.” Doing important work.

When last we updated this ongoing saga (“Radical Vegan Transgender Cult Update: Ziz Claims to Be ‘Genocide’ Victim,” November 28), Jack “Ziz” LaSota had just appeared in a federal courthouse in Baltimore, ranting insanely about “genocide” against transgender people. That hearing involved a federal felony charge — possession of firearms and ammunition by a fugitive — while LaSota and two other “Zizians” are also facing state charges in Allegany County, Maryland, where they were captured last February after a nationwide manhunt. It was those state charges that brought the trio to court Friday in Cumberland, Maryland:

Three members of the Zizians, a cultlike group linked to six deaths across the U.S., were granted permission Friday to work together in preparation for their upcoming trial on trespassing, weapons and drug charges.
Jack LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank are among a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists drawn together by radical beliefs about veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence.

(Credit to the Associated Press for that concise summary.)

Authorities have described LaSota, a transgender woman known as Ziz, as the apparent leader of the “extremist group.” Since 2022, Zizians have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord, the landlord’s subsequent killing, the deaths of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania, and a highway shootout in Vermont that left another member and a U.S. Border Patrol agent dead.

(Again, thanks for the concise summary, although I’ll have to deduct points for the phrase “transgender woman.”)

LaSota, Zajko and Blank were arrested in February after a property owner said he found them living in box trucks on his land in Frostburg, Maryland. Zajko was charged in Vermont with lying on her application to buy the gun used to kill agent David Maland in January 2025, while LaSota faces separate federal charges of being an armed fugitive.
On her way into the courthouse Friday, LaSota accused prosecutors of pressuring the trio to commit perjury by accepting plea deals and said, “They’re violating our speedy trial rights.” Friday’s hearing was supposed to include discussions of the trio’s motions to dismiss the charges and logistics of the trial that begins Feb. 9. Much of the agenda was postponed until Jan. 30 after Zajko indicated a desire to fire her attorney.

(Note to self: Plan trip to Cumberland for that hearing.)

Earlier, Allegany County Circuit Court Judge Michael Twigg agreed to allow the trio to work together on their defense. Since their arrest, LaSota and Blank have been allowed to meet, but Zajko was kept apart in what she described as “absurdly difficult circumstances.”
When the prosecutor told the judge he had reason to believe the three had already been communicating amongst themselves, LaSota interjected, “In the car ride here!”
“We should be able to talk to each other without being recorded and without fear of our notes being intercepted,” LaSota said.
“We’re adults. We have work to do, and we want to do our work,” Zajko said.
At one point, all three spoke up in support of each other.
“I repudiate any notion of protecting me from our codefendants,” LaSota said.
“I do, too,” said Zajko.
“As do I,” Blank said.
In the Vermont case, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Zizians member Teresa Youngblut, who has pleaded not guilty to murder for her alleged involvement in the shootout. Though she initially faced lesser charges, President Donald Trump’s administration had signaled early on that more serious charges were coming as part of its push for more federal executions.
At the time of the shooting, authorities had been watching Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, for several days after a Vermont hotel employee reported seeing them carrying guns and wearing black tactical gear. She is accused of opening fire on border agents who pulled the car over on Interstate 91. An agent fired back, killing Bauckholt and wounding Youngblut.
Two other members of the Zizians group are awaiting trial in connection with the 2022 attack on a landlord in California that left another member dead. Zajko has been called a person of interest in the deaths of her parents later that year, and another member of the group is charged with killing the landlord three days before the Vermont shooting.

Let’s recap the body count of the Zizian cult:

Left to right: Amir “Emma” Borhanian, Rita and Richard Zajko

  • Amir “Emma” Borhanian — Cult member shot to death on November 15, 2022, by Curtis Lind, who was defending himself after being attacked by Borhanian and others. Lind had rented space on his property in Vallejo, California, to the “Zizians,” who were living in vans and box trucks. They were months behind on rent and, with Lind preparing to evict them, he was “allegedly impaled with a sword and blinded in one eye” during the attempted murder by the Zizians.
  • Rita and Richard Zajko — Parents of cult member Michelle Zajko, murdered on New Year’s Eve (December 31, 2022/January 1, 2023) in their Pennsylvania home. Michelle Zajko has been described as a “person of interest” in her parents’ deaths.
  • Curtis Lind — Murdered in California on January 17, 2025. Cult member Maximilian Snyder is charged with the murder. It is believed that Lind was killed to prevent him from testifying against two surviving cult members who were charged in the November 2022 attack.
  • David “Chris” Maland — U.S. Border Patrol agent shot to death in Vermont while making a traffic stop that turned into a shootout on January 20, 2025.
  • Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt — Cult member from Germany, killed during the same Vermont shootout in which Maland died. Bauckholt’s accomplice, Teresa Youngblut, had taken out a marriage license with Snyder (the suspect in Lind’s murder). Youngblut survived the shootout and is now in federal custody.

Left to right: Curtis Lind, David “Chris” Maland, Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt

Earlier this month, there was a hearing in Solano County, California related to the 2022 attack on Curtis Lind:

Delays are continuing to affect an upcoming trial involving two attempted murder suspects associated with an anti-AI group known as the Zizians, including one suspect who is currently medically unable to stand trial and has been frequently moved within California’s penal system in order to get adequate mental health care.
Solano County Superior Court Judge John Ellis again asked California corrections officials where Suri Dao, one of two suspects charged with the attempted murder of Vallejo landlord Curtis Lind in 2022, can be housed and receive medical and mental health treatment for anorexia, catatonia and schizoaffective disorder.

(Andy Ngo has previously reported that “Suri Dao” is an alias, and the suspect’s real name is Tessa Berns.)

Dao, who appeared in court in a wheelchair and apparently catatonic with her head hanging down, was recently moved to the California Institution for Women in Chino to undergo psychological evaluation. However, the doctor initially assigned to review the case was unavailable, and, in anticipation of Monday’s [January 5] hearing, Dao was moved back to the Solano County jail, where she will be interviewed by what Ellis called an “alienist,” an older term describing a psychologist who appears as a court expert and determines the sanity of a defendant.
Ellis asked Jeff Harry, a deputy district attorney with Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, who appeared via Zoom, if a facility in that county could house Dao, and “had the ability to force-feed someone.”
“That’s beyond my scope,” said Harry. “I’m not trying to be cagey, but I couldn’t say.”
Harry said there weren’t any facilities he could recall that had what he’d consider “24/7 suicide watch,” and he said Dao needed to go to a facility with “a higher level of care.”
Ellis said he was trying to find somewhere near Solano County that could force patients to take medications and has in-house or on-call psychiatric services.
At a Dec. 1 hearing, Jordan Alarcon, a psychiatric registered nurse and the director of nursing at Wellpath, the jail’s medical provider, said Dao had lost 32 pounds since September due to anorexia and had an electrolyte imbalance. He said she developed a pressure ulcer on her hip and buttock area because she was “lying down in feces and urine” and refused to get up. Her condition, Alarcon said, could lead to cardiac arrhythmia, and increases the likelihood of stroke and death.
Dao’s attorney Brian Ford told the court he would prefer his client go to a facility that could help with her mental health diagnoses, but it was unclear where in Northern California she would be able to receive in-depth treatment.
The second defendant, Alexander Jeffrey Leatham, a transgender woman, sat in the courtroom with a mask on while her attorneys told the court about the defense retaining new counsel [for Leatham], which would hold up the trial until August, when attorney Allison Margolin would be available as co-counsel.
Leatham, unprompted, interrupted proceedings to say; “Allison Margolin doesn’t represent me, I represent myself,” after she thanked her supporters for donating to her defense.
Ellis decided to postpone further discussion and decisions about where to house Dao until the psychologist turns in a report on Dao’s condition. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23 and is to address motions to compel and to continue and an arraignment for Leatham’s third attempted escape from jail.
The hearing date is the same date as a readiness conference regarding a trial in Solano Superior Court for a homicide charge against Maximillian Snyder, who is suspected of fatally stabbing Lind in the neck in January 2025. Lind had been set to testify against Dao and Leatham regarding the attempted murder charges.
In the attack for [which] Dao and Leatham are charged with attempted murder, Lind’s skull was shattered and his chest was impaled with a samurai sword. During the attack, Lind shot and killed another Zizian member, Emma Borhanian, and wounded Leatham. Both Leatham and Dao are charged with Borhanian’s murder, along with an aggravated mayhem charge.
Leatham and Dao belong to a group informally titled the Zizians, a loose, cult-like organization of radical vegans who claim AI is a danger to humanity. The two suspects are among roughly 10 known members of the Zizians — who are dedicated to the ideas of blogger Jack “Ziz” LaSota, a 34-year-old transgender woman who came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2016.

The court should stop wasting time with these psychiatrists and just call me as an expert witness: Crazy People Are Dangerous.

PREVIOUSLY:



 

Category: California, Crime, Maryland, The Transgender Cult

Comments