Woman frustrated as attacker who shattered her knee in mask confrontation gets probation
Margot Kagan said she is still suffering from health complications after she was assaulted in 2020
By Jennifer Bisram
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BERGEN COUNTY, New Jersey (WCBS) — A New Jersey woman says her life was forever changed after she was assaulted back in 2020, but last week, her attacker averted jail time.
The assault happened after a dispute over face masks, the victim told CBS News New York’s Jennifer Bisram in her first sit-down TV interview.
N.J. woman assaults woman with cane after being told to wear mask
Margot Kagan, a 59-year-old mother of two, says she is a cancer survivor who had a life-saving liver transplant back in 2020.
“I was weak. I mean, I had almost 200 stitches,” she said.
She was still recovering and walking with a cane when she visited a Staples store in Hackensack in late July 2020.
“I was actually trying to fax something so my daughter can get into college,” Kagan said.
At the time, face masks were mandatory indoors, but Kagan said another customer, Terri Thomas, was wearing hers below her chin.
“And I said, ‘You should really be wearing a mask.’ And rage, rage, she had so much rage,” Kagan said.
Surveillance video shows Kagan pointing her cane at Thomas, then putting it back on the ground. Thomas then lunges at Kagan, grabs her by the wrist and throws her to the ground. Thomas then walks away.
Additional video shows Kagan struggling on the ground while Thomas walks past her, even stepping over Kagan’s leg at one point.
“My knee was shattered, and my tibia started to split vertically,” Kagan said.
“I’ll be serving time the rest of my life”
Thomas, who was 25 years old at the time, was arrested.
“The thing that she did wrong was not breaking my knee. It was putting her hands on me,” Kagan said.
According to the Bergen County prosecutor’s office, Thomas pled guilty to third-degree aggravated assault, which carries a sentence up of to five years in prison.
Five years later, however, a judge sentenced Thomas to three years of probation.
“I get hurt. I get assaulted. Nothing happens to my attacker except probation,” Kagan said.
Kagan said she used to run five miles every day, but now, every step is a battle.
“I can barely walk a lap,” she said.
She said she now spends most of her time at her New Jersey home.
“Basically I was in my room in my bed for three months. I served time. I’ll be serving time the rest of my life,” Kagan said.
CBS News New York reached out to Thomas’ attorney for comment through the county’s public defender’s office and have not heard back.
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