When Lior Zeevi, an Israeli American business owner in San Jose, showed up in court on March 9, his face was bruised and swollen from the beating he suffered the day before.
The story of the assault, first reported by J., spread quickly. Witness videos capturing part of the incident circulated widely on social media, and Zeevi’s allegation that he and his friend, Daniel Levy, were targeted in an antisemitic attack drew national attention. Zeevi said they were attacked while speaking Hebrew with each other as they waited outside a restaurant on San Jose’s Santana Row. One of the assailants, Zeevi said, called him a “f***ing Jew.”
But Zeevi didn’t appear in court on March 9 to face his suspected attackers. They hadn’t even been caught yet.
He was there because he faces a hate crime allegation in an unrelated case.
Zeevi, 47, faces a felony charge of criminal threats with a hate crime enhancement, stemming from an alleged road-rage confrontation in May 2025 in which he is accused of threatening to shoot a transgender woman and calling her a homophobic slur.
Zeevi denies the accusations. “A bogus case with no evidence,” he told J. in an April 28 phone interview. He added that his public defender is seeking to have the case dismissed.
A different attorney, David Rosenberg-Wohl, who represents Zeevi as a victim in the Santana Row assault, told J. that there is no relationship between the cases.
“I would certainly caution you in drawing a connection,” he said.
The two criminal cases — one in which Zeevi is the victim, one in which he is the defendant — are proceeding in parallel at the same Santa Clara County courthouse. It’s an unusual dynamic, one that could shape public perceptions in a high-profile case involving allegations of antisemitism.
Jewish ethical teachings make at least one thing clear about this situation, said Rabbi Dov Greenberg, who leads Stanford University’s Chabad center: Society owes Zeevi justice for the assault he endured.
“Justice is about principles, not about personalities,” said Greenberg, who is also one of J.’s Torah columnists. “No one is perfect, and each injustice needs to be confronted and dealt with justly regardless of the person’s past or future.”
The next hearing in either case comes Wednesday, when the three men accused of attacking Zeevi and Levy are scheduled to be arraigned on felony assault charges and are expected to state how they plead.
(Courtesy Keanu Kahrobaie)
One of the most sensitive elements of the case is whether prosecutors will elect to file a hate crime enhancement in the Santana Row assault, given both Zeevi’s and Levy’s characterization of events. So far prosecutors haven’t done so, but Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen left the door open saying previously that his office is continuing to review the evidence.
The case is being closely watched by Jewish community leaders and by elected officials who rallied around Zeevi and Levy in the days after the attack. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called the attack “disgusting,” all condemned the assault, several explicitly calling it an act of antisemitism.
The Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Silicon Valley told J. they were working with San Jose police and the DA’s office on the case. Both declined to comment on the hate crime allegation Zeevi faces.
That case has so far evaded media attention.
Police and court records tell a version of what may have happened the day of the alleged road-rage incident.
On the afternoon of May 15, 2025, Hannah Taylor was driving home from work through San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood when a white Porsche coupe sped past her. The driver cut in front of her and hit the brakes, according to testimony from Taylor at a preliminary hearing. The driver did it again, she testified. And again.
Taylor, 41, a Santa Cruz County public defender, then followed the car for more than a mile down a residential street. Both vehicles eventually pulled over. The Porsche’s driver got out. A boy was in the passenger seat.
According to Taylor’s testimony at the March 9 hearing, the driver — Zeevi — shouted, “Want to f***ing go?” He looked at Taylor, who had purple hair and wore a green dress, and allegedly shouted, “You’re not normal. You’re a f***ing f****t.”
Then came the alleged threat.
“If you follow me one more meter, I’ll f***ing shoot you,” Zeevi allegedly said while creating a gun shape with his fingers and pointing at her.
Taylor called 911 from her car. When a San Jose police officer reached Zeevi the next day, his response was recorded in the officer’s report: “Oh, you mean with the queer?”
According to the police report, Zeevi denied threatening Taylor and told the officer he was worried she was following him.
In a brief phone interview with J. on April 28, Zeevi denied the allegations, saying there’s no proof to support Taylor’s story.
This case “is unlike the other case where I got attacked brutally with a lot of proof and videos,” he said. Zeevi added that he believes Taylor is “using her power” as a public defender and her legal knowledge to “maneuver all this stuff.”
Taylor declined J.’s request for comment.
A judge listened to Taylor’s testimony and reviewed other evidence at a preliminary hearing on March 9 — the morning Zeevi arrived in court with a bruised and swollen face. The judge ruled there was enough evidence for the case to proceed on both the felony criminal threats charge and hate crime enhancement. Zeevi’s public defender sought to have the charge reduced to a misdemeanor. The judge denied the request.
A trial setting conference, at which a trial date may be set or a plea deal reached, is scheduled for May 20.
Aside from the videos showing the Santana Row attack, little is known about how it started or what evidence prosecutors may have collected since then. The three defendants, Bruneil Henry Chamaki, Roma Akoyans and Ramon Akoyans, have not publicly shared their side of the story.
Chamaki is a Morgan Hill corporate attorney. On Instagram, he portrays himself as a tattoo-covered mixed martial arts fighter. A Feb. 26 post shows him lifting his T-shirt, revealing a handgun tucked into his waistband. A Feb. 28 post shows a handgun perched on a bedroom nightstand alongside a kitten.
On March 9, the day after the Santana Row assault, Chamaki posted a photo of a new tattoo on his upper arm, showing three skulls with knives in their jaws. Beneath the skulls is the Latin phrase “interfice hostem,” meaning “kill the enemy.”
The two other men charged in the assault, Roma Akoyans, 20, and his brother, Ramon Akoyans, 18, both of San Jose, have appeared in many of Chamaki’s Instagram posts.
Chamaki’s attorney, Sam Polverino, declined to comment on the social media posts but disputed the antisemitism allegation and cautioned against rushing to judgment.
“I am disappointed that many from your community have jumped to conclusions based on the last five seconds of a video without knowing what took place beforehand,” he said in an email to J. “It has caused a lot of grief for my client and his family, including death threats. My client is not antisemitic.”