Afghani goes on rampage against non-paying blacks

Posted on 30. Mar, 2007 by Derek Bargeld in Race, Top Stories

LONG BEACH – The fate of a local physician accused of committing a variety of hate crimes in an effort to evict two black tenants from her Orizaba Avenue rental property now rests in the hands of a Long Beach jury.Dr. Mary Zulfacar, a 66-year-old native of Afghanistan and naturalized U.S. citizen, faces several misdemeanor counts and two hate-crime allegations arising from a dispute over a lease agreement with Kenneth Jackson and his 17-year-old daughter, Jerlean. 

Prosecutors allege that on two days in May 2006, Zulfacar punched Jerlean in the stomach when she was five months pregnant, threatened Kenneth with a shovel, vandalized the Jacksons’ car, yelled racial slurs at them, left a manila envelope containing feces in their mailbox and taunted them by hanging a stuffed monkey from a rope next to a sign reading “I.M. LYNCHED.”

In addition to the hate-crime counts, Zulfacar is charged with assault with a deadly weapon, battery, making criminal threats, brandishing a deadly weapon and violating a court order. If convicted, she could face several years in jail.

In her closing argument before a Long Beach Superior Court jury Wednesday, Deputy City Prosecutor Sayge Castillo said there was no question that Zulfacar committed the acts and was motivated by a deep-seated hatred.

“The bottom line is that (lease disputes) are no defense – absolutely no defense – for what she did to this family,” Castillo said. “Whether (the Jacksons) paid the rent, or didn’t pay the rent, is irrelevant.” MORE>>>