Allegany County Circuit Court in Maryland placed the state cases against Jack “Ziz” LaSota, Michelle Zajko, and Daniel Blank on inactive status around mid-August 2026, canceling scheduled trial dates with no public explanation given.
The three were arrested Feb. 16, 2025, after a property owner in the Frostburg area reported them camping in box trucks on private land.
Initial charges were misdemeanor trespassing, obstruction, and gun possession; later indictments added felony drug (LSD possession with intent) and firearms counts. They were held for about 18 months.
Local reporting from the Cumberland Times-News and AP coverage confirms the inactive-status move.
Daniel Blank had already been released in February 2026 on a $15,000 unsecured bond with GPS monitoring, a curfew, and a requirement to live alone.
With the Maryland cases paused, those conditions ended and he is no longer under those restrictions.
LaSota remains held on a federal detainer (fugitive in possession of firearms), and Zajko faces extradition to Pennsylvania on first-degree murder charges in her parents’ 2022 killings.
The California reference is also accurate. Curtis Lind, an elderly Vallejo landlord in his 80s, survived a November 2022 attack at his property in which he was stabbed repeatedly, had a samurai sword driven through him, and lost an eye. He shot two of the attackers, killing group member Emma Borhanian. Lind was the key surviving eyewitness for the trial of two other alleged Zizians (Suri Dao and Alexander Leatham) charged in that incident.
On Jan. 17, 2025—days before a related Vermont shootout—Lind was stabbed to death outside his property. Maximilian Snyder, linked to the group, was charged with that murder; prosecutors described it as silencing a witness. The documented facts are a targeted killing of the surviving witness before trial.
The group—young, highly educated people from rationalist/EA/tech circles who adopted extreme veganism, anarchist views, and unconventional gender ideas—has been tied by police and prosecutors to multiple deaths across California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont (Zajko parents, Border Patrol Agent David Maland, Lind, Borhanian, and others). Several members, including LaSota, identify as transgender.
Alleged Zizian group members to leave Allegany County after 18-month incarceration
CUMBERLAND — Local court cases against two people, reportedly connected to the Zizians group and held without bond at the Allegany County Detention Center for the past 18 months, are