Marc Angelucci donating cloths the the Valley Oasis domestic violence shelter. He drove over 100 miles because Valley Oasis is one of the few shelters to accept men.
We want to thank Greg Little, Editor of the Mariposa Gazette for his courageous coverage of the Jerry Cox saga. We suspect that considerable pressure may have been put on him to sway his coverage. However, he maintained his objectivity throughout with fair and balanced reporting. I know Marc and Jerry appreciated his courage, as did the rest of us who believe in compassion, justice and the rule of law, especially the latter of the three when applied fairly, without bias and with honor. Harry Crouch, President NCFM
Angelucci killer was likely same suspect who shot NJ judge’s son
| July 23, 2020
By GREG LITTLE Editor
The murder of a prominent attorney with ties to a Mariposa County case may have been committed by the same person who killed a judge’s son in New York.
The bizarre story began with the killing of Marc Angelucci on July 11 at his home in rural Crestline, a mountain community located east of Los Angeles.
Angelucci was the lawyer representing former Mariposa County landowner Jerry Cox, whose ranch was taken from his possession by an order from the Mariposa County Superior Court. Angelucci is a well-known lawyer who focuses on mens’ rights causes and was recently victorious in a court case which seeks to require women to register from the draft. That case is currently making its way through the appellate system.
Sources indicate the suspected shooter, Roy Den Hollander, 72, is also a lawyer and was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Den Hollander is also the suspect in the high-profile murder of the son of Judge Esther Salas, an incident in which her husband was also critically wounded. Salas was the first Latino federal judge appointed to represent the state of New Jersey.
Den Hollander was found dead on Monday in the town of Rockland in the Catskills region of New York.
The suspect was identified by Federal Bureau of Investigation officials in New York, according to a story by NBC News. Reports also indicate the FBI has taken over both investigations. Attempts were made to contact the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office to confirm the FBI’s role, but the attempts failed before our press time on Tuesday.
It was reported by NBC News that Den Hollander was also a mens’ rights attorney.
One person who knew Angelucci, but asked to remain anonymous, said Den Hollander may have been trying to get involved in a case Angelucci was working on, though that could not be verified.
Angelucci was the vice-president and a board member of the National Coalition For Men (NCFM) and was also involved heavily in the Cox case in Mariposa County — a case that has been high profile and emotional within the community.
According to the NBC News report on Tuesday morning, law enforcement officials said they found printed material in Den Hollander’s car about Salas, Angelucci and Janet DiFiore, chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals and the state of New York.
It also appears to be no coincidence how the killings were allegedly planned and implemented by Den Hollander.
In the New York case, it was reported he was dressed as a FedEx driver and when the judge’s son opened the door, he opened fire, killing her son, Daniel, and critically wounding her husband, Mark Anderl, a well-regarded defense attorney.
In the case of Angelucci, reports indicate he was at his home in rural Crestline when someone appearing to be a delivery driver came to the door asking for Angelucci. Though official reports remain sketchy, people who were at the house have said the alleged driver insisted upon having Angelucci sign for the package. The reports do indicate Angelucci was gunned down while at the front door of his house. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
According to NBC News, the FBI, U.S. Marshals, New Jersey State Police and the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General are all investigating. A statement from the FBI also indicated officers were looking for “one subject” in the shooting. It is still not clear what led authorities to the location in the Catskills where the man’s body was found, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Angelucci was the lawyer representing Cox and there are still cases pending before various courts. That included a “discharge hearing” that was scheduled for this week in Mariposa County Superior Court. Details of how all of that will play out were not available as of our press time on Tuesday.
The discharge hearing is the final step in the receivership case against Cox. In a discharge hearing, the judge, in this case Mariposa County Superior Court Judge Dana Walton, decides how to distribute the proceeds of the sale of the property.
There are also cases still pending in the state court of appeals as well as a federal lawsuit filed by Angelucci against Mariposa County and including members of the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office.
That suit grew from the original reason Angelucci became involved in the Cox case.
Former Mariposa County District Attorney Thomas Cooke filed 14 felony charges against Cox, all related to sexual crimes against a woman who was staying at his ranch at Mt. Bullion, which is north of the airport. Cox met the woman, Ashley Harris, on the dating site farmersonly.com.
Cox insisted his innocence, but it was nearly two years before Cooke eventually dropped the charges against Cox, saying he could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Angelucci claimed, in the federal filing, local officials knew of Cox’s innocence but pursued the case anyway and then filed the case against him citing 101 code violations at the ranch.
County officials have said since the beginning the code violations case had been ongoing for nearly a decade and it had nothing to do with the 14 felony charges — which could have landed Cox in jail for the rest of his life.
The federal judge has ruled the case can continue, however, it remains unclear who will be representing Cox in the matter.
Angelucci’s murder raises many questions
BETWEEN THE LINES
| July 23, 2020
Greg Little
It was a week ago Monday when I came into the office and was in total shock.
For the most part, I do try to keep up with things on the weekends, but not always. That particular weekend, I didn’t. I must have simply been hanging around my house and chilling.
And then the shocking news came.
Marc Angelucci, the attorney who represented Jerry Cox in the high-profile Mariposa County case, had been murdered. In broad daylight. At his home in Crestline.
Crestline is a small community in the mountains east of Los Angeles. Although I have never been there, I once did some extensive research about that area. It’s probably similar to this area as it is rural and mountainous. The community in which he was killed was about the size and scope of Jerseydale.
I had to stop what I was doing and take a deep breath.
When you cover a story like the Cox case for so long and with so many angles, one thing that happens is you get to know the people involved.
Angelucci was certainly heavily involved in the case. I talked with him frequently over the past couple of years. He was the kind of attorney who answered his own phone and didn’t hesitate to do an interview. Unlike many attorneys, he just did it on the spot. Too many attorneys want everything via email. I get it, because they want it in writing, but Angelucci didn’t see it that way.
If he had something to say, he would say it. He never hesitated in criticizing what he saw as injustice in the justice system. He would not hold back in criticizing a judge or another attorney.
I never did get to meet him face to face. I was hoping to early this year. He told me each February he tried to come to Yosemite to do some winter hiking to Glacier Point. It was an annual pilgrimage for him, he told me during a phone conversation.
I suggested we meet somewhere so we could at least put a face to a voice. I had no big agenda or anything; I just wanted to talk with him. That’s one thing I like to do as a journalist. It’s always nice to meet someone you are writing about on a regular basis.
But something happened and he had a medical condition. I think he broke his arm or something like that, and could not make the trip.
I wish it wouldn’t have been that way.
There is a lot of speculation about what happened and, more important, who did it when it comes to his murder. He was gunned down at the front door of his own home. From my understanding, it was someone who was disguised as a delivery driver and insisted he sign for the package.
When he came to the door, bullets flew and he was on the ground dying.
By the time emergency help got there, it was too late to save his life.
Marc Angelucci was dead at the age of 52.
Answering the questions about what happened is no easy task. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office has been investigating the case and, to its credit, has sent detectives to various locations to conduct interviews with key people.
The problem, though, is trying to narrow things down. If there was one quality about Angelucci, it was he was controversial and took on difficult cases.
His main focus was mens’ rights, itself a controversial matter. He fought for the rights of men, and though some might see that as a problem, he didn’t. It was his cause and he didn’t hesitate.
It was that cause that brought him into the Cox case. I don’t think it was his initial intention to become deeply involved in a property dispute. What led him to that was the rape allegations handed down by former Mariposa County District Attorney Thomas Cooke. It was Cooke who pushed that case to the hilt. But even Cooke eventually knew it was false.
Or was it eventually? Did he know it from the start and pursue it anyway? I guess only he knows.
The point, though, is the false rape allegations led to Angelucci taking on the larger land case. He became deeply involved in the case and there are still cases pending in federal court and the state appeals court.
What happens to those cases remains to be seen, but they are still there and it’s almost certain someone is going to take them on, though delays are inevitable.
I’m not one of those “oh, he would have wanted it that way” kind of people. He’s dead and the killer (or killers) remain free.
That is injustice at its greatest.
I understand Angelucci made enemies in his legal career. Probably more than most attorneys.
But that does in no way justify a murder. Nothing justifies a murder in that regard. He was fighting for a cause and that should be admired.
Even if you disagree with the cause, there is no doubt Angelucci had determination and drive like few others. He was bound and determined to expose what he saw as corruption in Mariposa County.
Whether he was right or wrong remains to be seen. That he was an advocate for causes is unquestioned.
Nobody deserves to die the way he did and those who are responsible need to be caught and punished accordingly. That is the only justice I can see for Marc Angelucci.
Greg Little is editor of the Mariposa Gazette and can be reached at greg@mariposagazette.com.
Cox attorney shot to death at SoCal home
Acclaimed lawyer was known for national fight for the rights of men
| July 16, 2020
By GREG LITTLE Editor
Less than two weeks before a crucial hearing involving former Mariposa County landowner Jerry Cox, the attorney who represents Cox was gunned down and police suspect it was murder.
Marc Angelucci, 52, a high-profile attorney who has been involved in the Cox case for quite some time, died last Saturday at his home in Cedarpines Park in San Bernardino County.
Angelucci was also the vice-president and a board member for the National Coalition for Men (NCFM).
He took on the Cox case representing that group be cause Cox was falsely accused of raping a woman in Mariposa County. Former Mariposa County District Attorney Thomas Cooke brought 14 felony charges against Cox, but two years into the case abruptly dropped those charges, saying he could not prove the case in court.
Angelucci, who was prominent in the men’s right movement, represented Cox and won a case against the alleged victim, Ashley Harris. He took the case to court in southern California where Harris now lives. The judge in the case ruled Harris was not believable and even ordered her to pay attorney fees charged by Angelucci.
After taking on that aspect of the Cox matter, Angelucci agreed to represent him in the receivership case which has gained a lot of prominence.
“Marc was an unbelievably generous man, living on a shoestring despite some personal health challenges so he could donate millions of dollars of his time to mostly voluntary legal work on behalf of men’s rights and the genuine gender equality that is so badly needed in this country and this world,” said a statement from NCFM.
“He was an amazing attorney,” said Cox in a Monday interview with the Mariposa Gazette. “An incredible attorney.”
The case against Cox has been ongoing for years and was about to come to somewhat of a conclusion next week when the discharge hearing in the case was scheduled. It was set for July 23.
The discharge hearing is when the judge decides how monies collected in a receivership case are distributed. In this case, Mariposa County Superior Court Judge Dana Walton allowed the receiver to sell Cox’s 462 acre ranch located north of the airport in Mariposa County.
California Receivership Group was appointed to the case by Walton and it was led by Mark Adams, owner of that company. The company has been under scrutiny for many years with its involvement in receivership cases around the state.
A receivership case is when a court rules a property needs oversight in order to be brought back into compliance. In many cases, those properties are housing complexes and other similar places where money can still be collected from renters while the case is in court.
But in this case, Cox was the sole owner of the property. He was cited by Mariposa County officials for 101 code violations at the ranch and eventually he was removed from the property by law enforcement officials under a court order. At one point in the case, Cox was allowed to go back to his property, however, the judge eventually ruled the property to be sold.
That, however, did not change the discharge hearing in which the profits from that sale become the basis for distributing the monies to the various parties involved.
Angelucci has argued the property was seized illegally. He has also claimed that Adams overcharged in the case, seeking to make money instead of address the violation problems.
Angelucci was also involved in a federal lawsuit filed against the county. That suit remains active. There is also a court of appeals action in the case which remains active.
But next week, the focus was supposed to be on the discharge hearing, which has been delayed for months, much of it because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It was horrible what happened over there,” said Cox. “When I went over there, they were still mopping up the blood.”
Cox has since relocated to southern California and said he is living about 10 miles from where Angelucci was murdered. In fact, Cox said he had been working with him because the discharge hearing was coming up quickly.
Cox said he has been interviewed by a homicide detective from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the report from that department, it was around 4 p.m. on Saturday when there was a report of a shooting on Glenwood Drive, which is in Cedarpark Pines, an unincorporated mountain community northwest of Crestline.
The report said deputies found Angelucci “unresponsive and suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.” The police said Angelucci died at the scene after medical personnel responded but could not save his life.
“The motive for the shooting is unknown at this time,” said a report from the sheriff’s office.
As of Tuesday morning, police were still seeking a suspect in the case. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Simon Demuir at (909) 387-3589. Callers can remain anonymous and can alternatively contact the department at (800)-78CRIME or www.wetip.com.
Cox said he remains uncertain about the status of the case, but believes the NCFM will be vigilant in pursuing both justice for Angelucci as well as the various cases he was working on when he was killed.
“I think it just fires them up more,” said Cox.
Angelucci attended the University of California at Berkeley and went to law school at UCLA School of Law. In his career as an activist, Angelucci made appearances on television shows like Phil Donahue and Dr. Phil. He was also featured in “The Red Pill,” a documentary from 2016 about the men’s right movement.
According to the NCFM, Angelucci recently won an equal protection case against the Selective Service Administration overturning male-only draft registration. He had previously won a case in Woods vs. Horton, that held it unconstitutional to exclude male victims of domestic violence from state funding for victim services.
It remains unclear what will happen regarding the discharge hearing in Mariposa County Superior Court.
