Previous: Who Dunnit
CW: Mentions of self-harm, suicidality, & forced detransition
While the cops scramble to gather evidence against our cabal, Ziz spends 5 months in jail.
Her bail is set at $500,000 😵💫, but eventually reduced to a mere $10,000– which her mother, flying in from Alaska, pays. Her lawyer assures the court that Ziz's mother will also "make sure that [she*] comes back for all the court dates."
*All of these legal proceedings misgender Ziz.
Ziz leaves for Alaska in June of 2023, w/ her trial date set for December. On the big day, her lawyer arrives & declares that *he's* ready for trial... except for one lil thing: he has no idea where Ziz has gone.
He's, uh, spoken to her family in the meantime, but, uh, now that you mention it, not to Ziz directly.🤷🏻♀️ Butterfingers!
It will be one year before anybody spots Ziz again in the wild.
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Meanwhile, both Somni & the young Rationalist Suri Dao are v. much in jail: in the wrong jail. Somni is fruitlessly requesting transfer to a women's jail; Suri is fruitlessly requesting transfer to a men's jail*.
*Yes, in CA, inmates *do* have a hypothetical right to be housed based on their gender identity.
Both are also making escape attempts 👏👏👏
Somni's first attempt was back at the hospital, where she'd been treated for her gunshot wounds.
She'd pretended to be asleep, waited until her guard left for the bathroom, and limped in leg shackles into the hallway.
Next she'd run away during a hearing, & had tried to scale a fence.
Suri had faked a seizure in their cell, then had run past the guards.
Once caught & put back in their cell, they'd badly injured their hand trying to stop guards from closing the door, then banged their head on the window while waiting for an ambulance.
Suri's lawyers eventually ask for a suspension to their criminal proceedings.
They say that, since being taken off HRT, Suri has been self-harming, suicidally depressed, & has been going thru states of psychosis. They've stopped talking altogether- including to their lawyers & doctors.
Suri's lawyers describe them as lacking "awareness of court proceedings", and as appearing "mentally vacant, incognizant, and to be suffering from some type of dissociative identity disorder.”
These lawyers finish by citing "transgender issues" as further evidence of Suri's "incompetence"— referring, namely, to their requests to be moved to a men's jail.
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For the record... federal courts have ruled that denying necessary gender-affirming care in prisons can constitute cruel & unusual punishment. Forced detransition can have devastating psychological effects.
But rather than defend Suri- by working to get them into a men's jail, or even by trying to get them HRT*- Suri's lawyers are citing both the desire to be in a men's jail and the consequences of their forced detransition as nothing but signs of "incompetence".
*You wouldn't know it by this example, but California inmates also have a right to HRT!
This echos the way that, for much of the 20th c., "queer behavior" was framed by psychiatrists as socially-dangerous pathology. Queer ppl were frequently institutionalized against their will, & gender nonconformity was often cited as evidence of broader mental instability. Today, as Suri's case tragically illustrates, the medical & legal systems STILL wield these psychiatric narratives!
We don’t know what Suri's mental state would be if they were in a gender-affirming criminal justice system, but we don't think it would be *like this*. If we had their lawyers, we might stop talking too.
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Somni's lawyers are also arguing that their client is incompetent to stand trial.
Somni, who objects to even having a lawyer, *really* objects to this, and writes letters to the judge in which she says:
My coercively-assigned council does not represent me. I am rational. I do not have a ‘mental illness' and I do not need 'treatment'.
Good for Somni for standing up for herself!— & we agree w/ her scare-quotes around "treatment"!
The judge disagrees w/ Somni & w/ us. Based on doctors’ testimony, they rule that Somni is "developmentally disabled", and "incapable of cooperating with counsel in the conduct of their defense, and understanding the nature and purpose of the proceedings now pending against them.” 💀
Somni is committed to a mental hospital for a max. of 4 years. After ~a year & a half, she's released back into jail & declared competent- along w/ Suri.
Their trials are set to move forward on April 8th, 2025.
Then, on Jan. 17th, 2025, Curtis Lind— who is the sole eyewitness to his own murder attempt, unless you believe that Somni, maybe Ziz, & maybe Suri are eyewitnesses to his murder of Emma— is attacked by a figure in a black beanie & ski mask.
The attacker wraps one arm around Lind's neck, begins stabbing him in the chest, then slits his throat.
Lind is rushed to the hospital, but dies within an hour.
(N.b.: Luckily or unluckily— depending on who you believe— prosecutors had already recorded a long video of Lind detailing his version of the Vallejo shooting/stabbing. Perhaps their intuition told them sthng like this might happen.)
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Next: Quiet, Friendly Nerds
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