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Editorial: She desecrated a synagogue and was charged with a misdemeanor. Then she came back.
My temple was desecrated by a Messianic Jew or Jew for Jesus nut case. This editorial is in today's Houston Chronical. This lady should have been charged initially with a felony and should have never been able to bond out a second time.
Link to tweet
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/emanu-el-congregation-ezra-law-antisemitism-17734330.php
The disturbing series of events which led her back to the synagogue raises further questions about whether law enforcement is adequately aware of and prepared for increasingly prevalent anti-Jewish threats. A survey released this month by the Anti-Defamation League found that antisemitic beliefs have intensified across the country.
“With the increase in antisemitism over the last few years, every time that there’s a threat to a Jewish institution, it dramatically increases anxiety,” Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League Mark Toubin told the editorial board.
Law was originally charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief for the Jan. 14 break-in, despite the fact that the state penal code classifies “damage or destruction inflicted on a place of worship” as a felony offense. By the time prosecutors upgraded the initial misdemeanor to the more appropriate felony charge, Law had already been freed on a $100 bond handed down by a magistrate, who denied the DA’s request to fit her with an ankle monitor.
After Law skipped out on her arraignment hearing Friday, and was arrested Saturday afternoon at the synagogue, the DA this time asked for a $10,000 bond with GPS monitoring and an explicit curfew. Instead, Magistrate Judge Jannell Robles granted a $5,000 personal bond with neither of those conditions. By Sunday morning, Law had again bailed out of jail, to the shock of many community members following the case.
An Instagram post on Law's account followed shortly after, in which she proclaimed she is a Messianic Jew, a controversial sect generally not considered members of the Jewish faith. They consider the conversion of Jews to messianic Judaism a central part of their mission.....
Finally, in a court hearing on Monday, a visiting felony court judge revoked Law's bail, pending a hearing, and ordered a psychological evaluation. But her threatening and harassing posts and erratic behavior have put Houston's Jewish community on edge, questioning, as many of us are, why a woman who trespassed at a house of worship and desecrated a sacred text was not immediately charged with the appropriate offense. And why, given a chance to right that initial wrong, a steward of our justice system instead allowed a woman who had violated her bond conditions and was very likely a public safety risk to walk free on a low bond.
“With the increase in antisemitism over the last few years, every time that there’s a threat to a Jewish institution, it dramatically increases anxiety,” Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League Mark Toubin told the editorial board.
Law was originally charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief for the Jan. 14 break-in, despite the fact that the state penal code classifies “damage or destruction inflicted on a place of worship” as a felony offense. By the time prosecutors upgraded the initial misdemeanor to the more appropriate felony charge, Law had already been freed on a $100 bond handed down by a magistrate, who denied the DA’s request to fit her with an ankle monitor.
After Law skipped out on her arraignment hearing Friday, and was arrested Saturday afternoon at the synagogue, the DA this time asked for a $10,000 bond with GPS monitoring and an explicit curfew. Instead, Magistrate Judge Jannell Robles granted a $5,000 personal bond with neither of those conditions. By Sunday morning, Law had again bailed out of jail, to the shock of many community members following the case.
An Instagram post on Law's account followed shortly after, in which she proclaimed she is a Messianic Jew, a controversial sect generally not considered members of the Jewish faith. They consider the conversion of Jews to messianic Judaism a central part of their mission.....
Finally, in a court hearing on Monday, a visiting felony court judge revoked Law's bail, pending a hearing, and ordered a psychological evaluation. But her threatening and harassing posts and erratic behavior have put Houston's Jewish community on edge, questioning, as many of us are, why a woman who trespassed at a house of worship and desecrated a sacred text was not immediately charged with the appropriate offense. And why, given a chance to right that initial wrong, a steward of our justice system instead allowed a woman who had violated her bond conditions and was very likely a public safety risk to walk free on a low bond.
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