The horror was evident among several rationalists as news of the violent incident surrounding Lasota spread. “I don’t want Ziz to think of me,” a person involved in the Bay Area rationalist community said in a 2023 interview.
That June, Judge Capelli opposed the abolition of the charges’ waste, but reduced Lasota’s bail to $10,000 and cut it unsecured. McGarrigle informed the court that Lasota’s mother had jumped out of Alaska. The prosecutor was skeptical. “The federal concern is flight,” he told the judge. “There’s a literal relationship to the community.” What was the odds for Lasota to appear on the next court date in late August?
At about the same time, Michel Zaico called her aunt Roseanne. They hadn’t spoken since that January cemetery service for Michelle’s parents. She had not appeared in Memory Aluminasa, where Lossanne praised Rita and Rick. But now, Michel was calling the murder with a message saying, “She said she wasn’t responsible,” Roseanne said. “But she told her she knows who is who,” she told her aunt, “Leslong did it,” and she was “targeted.”
Shortly afterwards, the trust that Michelle owned the Coventry, Vermont home where Alice lived on Monday was sold out. Both Michelle and Blank left the previous winter. When real estate agents began inspecting their property, they discovered that the house was out of line with winter and the pipes burst. Meanwhile, one of Blank’s family members filed a national missing person report, noting that he was last seen in Pennsylvania, wearing thick glasses and one eye that was not followed by the other.
When the Lasota court appearance came, on the morning of August 21, 2023, the court gallery was filled with defendants waiting to be asked to plea for the day. Shortly after the court was taken to the session, an older woman with grey blonde hair pushed her wheelchair into the back of the courtroom. Among them was Lasota, who fell to one side and wore a flowing black. Her hair was also dark now, making her look even more chaotic than she was in prison. She was wearing what looked like an industrial N95 ventilator mask and had valves on each side. McGarrigle seemed surprised as he approached his client behind the courtroom. “What’s wrong?” he said. “I mean, what’s going on about your health?”
When the Lasota incident was called, a woman I learned later was that Lasota’s mother moved her forward, where she was sitting badly in a chair, staring slopingly at the floor.
The new prosecutor replaced the old prosecutor and demanded continuance to keep track of all the facts. The judge agreed and advanced the trial in December. “It just reflects the accused being here and we are just ready,” McGarrigle said before Lasota’s mother pulled her away through the door.
xii.
Two months later, I travelled to Sonoma County, the home of Westminster Woods, to this scene of protest that appears to have begun to unravel it. I met Sergeant Brian Parks at my local Starbucks. After hearing an explanation of the original arrest, I asked him why he had given him his felony warrant. “If I were to look at the system now, there’s probably 75 felony bench warrants,” Parks said. “We don’t have the luxury to try to serve,” he said. “We’re currently struggling with staff shortages.”
I told him what I heard from a source close to the lawsuit in Pennsylvania. “I heard there was some communication between us in Pennsylvania and our agency,” Parks said. “I don’t really want to comment on it because I don’t know how much.”
