The apparent head of a radical transgender cult linked to six killings, including a U.S. Border Patrol agent, told a Maryland judge last week, “I haven’t done anything wrong” while pleading for access to vegan food behind bars.
“I might starve to death if you cannot answer me,” Jack Amadeus LaSota, 34, who goes by “Ziz,” told Judge Erich Bean during a bail hearing in Allegany County District Court in Maryland on Feb. 18, according to audio obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. “I need the jail to be ordered for me to have a vegan diet. It’s more important than whatever this hearing is.”
During the hearing, LaSota said at another point that releasing him on bail “may be a matter of survival if I don’t get vegan food. . . . I haven’t done anything wrong. I shouldn’t be here.”
He continued, saying that he might be in a “mild state of delusion” due to a lack of vegan options in the Allegany County Detention Center and that he is not a flight risk since he is homeless.
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LaSota and two other reported Zizian members, Michelle Jacqueline Zajko, 32, of Media, Pa., and Daniel Arthur Blank, 26, of Sacramento, Calif., were arrested on Feb. 16 in Maryland.
LaSota and his affiliates face multiple charges, including trespassing and possession of a handgun. Their arrests brought attention to the “Zizian” cult – a group of radical young people who mostly identify as transgender, who are known for their affinity for veganism and their link to violent killings.
The Zizians’ violence was most recently linked to the Jan. 20 killing of Vermont Border Patrol Agent David Christopher Maland, 44.
During the hearing, Allegany County Attorney James Elliott described LaSota as someone who “appears to be the leader of an extremist group known as the Zizians. That group is tied to multiple homicides.”
“It’s important to note Mr. LaSota has ties to Alaska, California, Vermont, [and] Pennsylvania at this point that the state is aware of,” he said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to LaSota’s public defender in Maryland, Rebecca Francoeur-Breeden.
Prosecutors in Vermont have charged one of LaSota’s associates, Teresa Youngblut, 21, in connection with a shootout that left Maland dead.
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Youngblut was driving with German national Felix Bauckholt, also a reported member of the “Zizians,” when the pair were pulled over by federal agents on Interstate 91 in Coventry, Vermont. According to police, the two opened fire on agents. Bauckholt was killed, and Youngblut was wounded. Youngblut has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Youngblut and Bauckholt used weapons purchased in Vermont by Zajko, authorities previously said.
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Zajko is also a “person of interest” in the 2022 deaths of her parents, Richard and Rita Zajko, in Media, Pa. No one has been charged in their killings, according to authorities.
WATCH: Cult expert says ‘Zizian’ fringe group tied to killing of US border agent uses behavior control
The group exhibits cult behavior, according to Dar Dixon, an actor and the podcast host of “The Art of Being Dar,” who shared his cult expertise with Fox News Digital.
“The thing that I noticed about this ‘Zizian’ cult is that it hits all the major points that will set somebody up to be involved in it. You’ve got transgender human beings, alright? You’re dealing with sexuality. You’re dealing with sexual identity, and you’re dealing with sex. Anytime you do all those things, you’ve already got someone, as they say, by the tight and curlies,” he said.
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“The second thing is they were on a restrictive diet. In this case, they were vegan,” he said. “So, when you start to mix in the sexual aspect, then with a restrictive diet, now what you’re doing is behavior control.”
Referencing cult expert Steven Hassan’s BITE Model of Authoritarian Control, Dixon discussed how cults emotionally control their members.
“I’m sure there was a lot of sleep deprivation going on, also, which affects your thoughts, which affects your emotions, which also affects your behavior and your ability to take in and process information,” he said.
“This is part of the emotional control. You’re never allowed to feel your feelings or to discuss your feelings. If you don’t step in line with the party line, you’re immediately reprimanded, sometimes severely, either verbally or physically, or you’re shunned.”
“So, the culmination of sexual identity, food restriction, sleep restriction and emotional restriction, well, now I’ve got you,” he said. “I own you. And I can take you any direction I want to take you now.”
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