The anti-Israel professor charged with the death of a Jewish dad in a confrontation during a protest over the Israel-Hamas war last year will have to stand trial, a judge decided Wednesday.
Following a two-day preliminary hearing, Superior Court Judge Ryan Wright found there was enough evidence to try Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
Alnaji, 51, is accused of striking Paul Kessler with a megaphone during an anti-Israel demonstration in Thousand Oaks, a Los Angeles suburb, on Nov. 5 after the two got into a heated confrontation.
Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish dad who was counter-protesting, fell backward and hit his head on the pavement. He died the next day at a hospital.
Alnaji, a computer science professor at Moorpark College, was charged with two felonies: involuntary manslaughter and battery causing serious bodily injury, with special allegations of personally inflicting great bodily harm injury on each count, the DA’s office said.
Alnaji posted $50,000 bail, which had been cut in half in November after authorities announced he could still face hate crime charges for the incident.
The professor had espoused pro-Palestinian views on his Facebook and other social media accounts, all of which were taken down days after Kessler’s death.
The DA’s office said it is continuing to investigate Alnaji’s social media pages, as well as other documents belonging to him.
“This evaluation is ongoing and comprehensive, but to date, it has not revealed evidence to support a hate crime,” the DA’s office said.
“While antisemitic hate speech was heard at the November 5, 2023, rally, there is no evidence those words were said by Alnaji.”
Lawyers for Alnaji, who holds both Jordanian and US passports, have previously claimed that he and Kessler were several feet away from each other when he fell over onto the pavement.
“While he may have been pushed or hit by a megaphone, that’s not what caused his fall,” Alnaji’s attorney Ron Bamieh said of Kessler in November. “When he fell, my client was 6 to 8 feet away from him, and that will be the evidence that we present when we finally get this thing in front of a judge and jury.”
If Alnaji is found guilty on all charges, he could receive over four years in prison.
The two felony counts would count as two strikes against Alnaji under California’s three-strikes law.
If a person is convicted of “three strikes” under state law, they land a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years to life behind bars.
With Post wires.
