Fogel

I. Background

On May 25, 2004, Sergeant Michael Hooker of the Grass Valley Police Department received an anonymous phone call about a parked white Volkswagen van. The caller reported that messages written on the van frightened her. Sergeant Hooker located the unattended 1970 van in the lot of an apart- ment complex. The words “I AM A FUCKING SUICIDE BOMBER COMMUNIST TERRORIST!” were painted in block letters on the back of the van above the rear window. On the rear window was painted “PULL ME OVER! PLEASE, I DARE YA[.]” Below the window in slightly smaller letters was the text “ALLAH PRAISE THE

PATRIOT ACT . . . FUCKING JIHAD ON THE FIRST

AMENDMENT! P.S. W.O.M.D. ON BOARD!” A small American flag was attached to the van below the lettering. The rest of the van was decorated with slogans and paintings that had no political or threatening character.

Sergeant Hooker was able to determine that the van belonged to Matthew Fogel, a 22-year-old resident of Nevada City, a town four miles away from Grass Valley. Hooker con- cluded that the messages on the van were just “political sat- ire” and returned to the police station after taking digital photographs of the van. Hooker then…