‘Anti-Feminist’ lawyer behind shooting at judge’s home
/‘Anti-Feminist’ lawyer behind shooting at judge’s home
By Robert Foreman
One of the worst fears that anyone can have is that they, and their families, will become the victims of an unprovoked home invasion. After all, your home is your private sanctuary away from the troubles of the outside world where you can feel completely safe. Unfortunately, for Judge Esther Salas, and her family, the peace of their New Jersey home was forever shattered when attorney Roy Den Hollander came knocking at the door. Hollander, dressed as a FedEx delivery man, arrived at the family’s home and fatally shot Judge Salas’ 20-year-old son, Daniel, when he answered the door. Judge Salas’ husband, attorney Mark A. Anderl, was also shot multiple times by Hollander, but he survived. Judge Salas was in the basement at the time of the attack and was not injured. The following day, Hollander was found dead from what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The FBI, US Marshals and local law enforcement have been working together on the case since it involves a U.S. District Judge. During the course of the investigation, the FBI has also linked Hollander to the murder of California attorney Marc Angelucci eight days earlier. Just as in the attack on Judge Salas’ home, he reportedly arrived at Angelucci’s home dressed as a FedEx delivery man and shot the victim when he came to the door. Authorities have noted that Hollander used the same gun in both attacks. Hollander was a self-proclaimed ‘anti-feminist’ lawyer and viewed Angelucci as a rival.
Judge Salas, who is the first Hispanic woman to serve as both a United States Magistrate Judge and as a US District Judge in New Jersey, has been involved in a few high-profile cases. She presided over the bank fraud trial of Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice and her husband, Joe, in 2014. She issued an order in 2018 that temporarily blocked ICE from deporting some Indonesian Christians in New Jersey who were in the country illegally, but were seeking legal status. Yet, the most high-profile case for Judge Salas is the class-action lawsuit against Deutsche Bank that she is currently presiding over that involves the late, and disgraced, financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Ironically, Judge Salas and Hollander had previously crossed paths when he argued a case before her in which he represented a woman and her daughter who had filed a lawsuit against the military’s selective service. Hollander attempted to make the case that the draft was unconstitutional because women were not able to register. While Salas disagreed with part of Hollander’s argument in 2019, she also agreed with other parts of his claims and the lawsuit was allowed to move forward. However, Hollander removed himself from the case in 2019 and turned the lawsuit over to another law firm citing that he was terminally ill.
The motive behind Hollander’s attack on Judge Salas still remains unknown. Yet, it is reported that he claimed that he always had issues with female Hispanic judges because they were “driven by an inferiority complex.” He also pushed racist beliefs that organizations were trying to paint whites as barbarians and minorities as victims. However, his venom seemed primarily directed at women. He had built his reputation as the ‘anti-feminist’ lawyer by filing numerous lawsuits against bars and restaurants for hosting ‘Ladies Night’. He also filed lawsuits against the federal government over the ‘Violence Against Women Act,’ which he called the ‘Female Fraud Act’. All of his lawsuits were based on what he viewed as violations against the Constitution.
No one could have predicted how far Hollander would take his beliefs. Yet, in hindsight, there were signs. He told Stephen Colbert during an interview on The Colbert Report that “I’m going to fight the feminists until my last dollar, my last breath. And if there’s anything left after death, I will fight them for eternity. One has to wonder how anyone, especially a lawyer, could allow themselves to become so twisted by hate that they dedicate their entire life to it. Hating people who don’t look like you has never ended well for anybody, yet too many people continue to do it. In the case of Hollander, his twisted mentality has shattered two families and left a trail of blood, death and tears in his wake. To make matters worse, he chose to kill himself instead of dealing with the consequences of his murderous rampage which only goes to show that he was not only a sexist and a racist, but a coward. He won’t be missed and the world is better off without him in it.
