WOODLAND — Depressed and withdrawn after her graduation from college, Lauren Kirk-Coehlo turned to radical beliefs to fill her emotional void, according to a probation report for the woman sentenced to five years’ probation Friday for the hate-crime vandalism of the Islamic Center of Davis.
The report quotes Dr. Joan Gerbasi, Kirk-Coehlo’s former therapist, who opined that the 30-year-old Davis woman has an “immature personality structure,” relying upon intellectualization — a focus on facts and logic over emotion — to cope with her lack of intimate attachments.
Gerbasi “believes that the defendant’s retreat into radical beliefs is an extreme use of intellectualization as a defense mechanism against feelings of loneliness, isolation and failure,” Deputy Probation Officer Arthur Arustamyan wrote in the 35-page report recommending that Kirk-Coehlo serve formal probation for her crimes.
Yolo Superior Court Judge Daniel Maguire concurred, saying long-term public safety is “best served” if Kirk-Coehlo undergoes intense supervision and therapy. He rejected prosecutors’ request for a state prison term.
“When she is being treated, she can thrive,” said Maguire, who also ordered Kirk-Coehlo to undergo weekly counseling sessions and cultural sensitivity and awareness training. “When she is not treated, she goes off the rails, and she went off the rails here.”
Maguire said he found Kirk-Coehlo to be remorseful for her Jan. 22 hate-crime attack on the Russell Boulevard mosque, which, according to her defense attorneys, she carried out as a “political protest” of Islam’s poor treatment of women.
Kirk-Coehlo began suffering mental health issues in high school and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at one point, but Gerbasi wrote in a letter contained in the probation report that the young woman doesn’t appear to suffer from a major mental illness.
“Despite Lauren’s recent behavior I remain cautiously optimistic that, with the appropriate support and treatment, she can put this behind her and resume her path toward a healthy, productive life,” Gerbasi wrote.
Kirk-Coehlo’s sentence also calls for 120 hours of community service, avoiding social media throughout her probation, $7,612 in restitution that’s already been paid, and 374 days in county jail.
Maguire stayed her 119 remaining jail days after calculating time already served and good-conduct credit, and by Friday afternoon Kirk-Coehlo had been discharged from custody.
Her swift release stunned two Islamic Center members who attended the sentencing hearing.
Mohamed Kheiter, treasurer of the center’s board of trustees, said while he forgives Kirk-Coehlo and wants to see her rehabilitated, he fears her release may inspire similar crimes “because in the end they walk out,” he said. “That’s the message. It just gives them the green light to do something like that.”
“We think she has a lot of hate, and we have great concerns,” added Hamza El-Nakhal, the board’s former president. “We just have to take further action to protect ourselves.”
‘A lot of anger’
Davis police and FBI agents arrested Kirk-Coehlo on Feb. 14, about three weeks after the Davis High School and UC Berkeley graduate and former Google employee was caught on surveillance camera shattering six windows, vandalizing several bicycles and leaving strips of raw bacon — pork being a forbidden food in the Muslim religion — on the mosque property.
The early-morning crime galvanized the Davis community, triggering an outpouring of emotional and financial support to the Islamic Center and its members. Hundreds of people gathered in Central Park later that week to show their solidarity with the Muslim community.
According to the probation report, a former boyfriend and several other people recognized Kirk-Coehlo in the grainy video footage, which received widespread media coverage, and quickly identified her to police.
“She had always displayed a lot of anger toward people of color, especially Muslims,” the report says, quoting one of the tipsters. “She used to talk about hating them and how she wanted to vandalize their property.”
Following her arrest, authorities announced Kirk-Coehlo’s bail at the Yolo County Jail was set at $1 million, the steep figure later explained in a Davis police detective’s affidavit outlining Kirk-Coehlo’s social media activity and internet search history.
Detective Dan La Fond noted that Kirk-Coehlo wrote on Twitter of having “dreams and aspirations” of killing people, glorified Charleston, S.C., church shooter Dylann Roof and researched Quebec mosque attack suspect Alexandre Bissonnette, and wrote of having “mental problems” in texts to her mother.
“Kirk-Coehlo’s hate-motivated vandalism along with her glorification of Roof and Bissonnette, who recently killed African Americans and Muslims in their place of worship, along with her own statement of having dreams and aspirations of killing, concern law enforcement,” La Fond wrote. “I believe Kirk-Coehlo is an immediate danger to the public.”
Kirk-Coehlo’s defense team, attorneys Steven Sabbadini and David Dratman, later made an unsuccessful bid to lower their client’s bail. They argued that her tweets, while offensive, were nonetheless protected free speech.
“The fact that people rant on the internet does not always translate into action,” Dratman told Maguire, who rejected prosecutor Ryan Couzens’ request for a no-bail hold but kept the $1 million amount intact.
Attorneys then scheduled Kirk-Coehlo’s preliminary hearing, a highly anticipated proceeding where the prosecution would outline its evidence in support of the charges. Instead, Kirk-Coehlo made the surprise move of pleading guilty to the charges in full — felony vandalism with a hate crime enhancement and vandalism to a church — with no promise of leniency from the District Attorney’s Office.
“She wanted to take responsibility for her actions and plead guilty at an early stage of the proceedings,” Sabbadini explained at the time. “We’ll leave it up to the court’s discretion to determine an appropriate sentence.”
Probation or prison?
Although Kirk-Coehlo’s crimes carried a maximum of six years in state prison, the Yolo County Probation Department recommended probation, citing her young age, minimal criminal history (a trespassing conviction that was later expunged) and low risk of re-offending.
Her defense lawyers backed that recommendation. But Couzens called for prison at Friday’s sentencing hearing, characterizing the vandalism as an act of violence and intimidation motivated by hate.
In a letter to the court, the Islamic Center’s executive committee and board of trustees disclosed that parents feared bringing their children to prayer sessions at the mosque, and weekly Sunday school classes were canceled due to lingering safety concerns.
“A church is supposed to be a place of safety and worship and sanctuary. Ms Kirk-Coehlo literally shattered that sense of safety,” Couzens said, disputing the probation report’s description of the crime victim as “not particularly vulnerable.”
Couzens also argued that Kirk-Coehlo demonstrated a lack of remorse for her actions in her interview with probation officers, but defense lawyers Dratman and Sabbadini noted that their client, in fact, called her conduct “prejudicial and completely inappropriate.”
They said Kirk-Coehlo also is committed to resuming weekly therapy with Gerbasi and has been offered employment in 3D computer-aided drawing at a Woodland technology firm where her father works.
“Not everyone needs to be punished with prison,” Dratman said. “People need to be given a chance to redeem themselves.”
Maguire agreed. He said the probation report “painted to me a clear picture of the likely cause and effect” of her actions, her success in life corresponding with periods during which she’s received mental-health treatment.
Acknowledging Kirk-Coehlo’s actions caused stress and harm to the community, “the question is, what best serves long-term public safety?” Maguire said. “In my view, public safety would be greater enhanced by a grant of probation with intense supervision.”
Maguire scheduled a follow-up hearing on Aug. 25 to review Kirk-Coehlo’s progress on probation and determine the possible addition of a restorative justice aspect to the case, in which a perpetrator and victim meet in a facilitated setting to discuss the harm caused by an offense.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
