A man who, in the words of gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, "has repeatedly cycled through the criminal justice system and continues to exhibit alarming and violent behavior," will face a judge December 23 for a hearing on treatment options after years of terrorizing Castro residents.
Zero Triball, 36, who has been arrested a number of times since 2020 for physical attacks on various people throughout the Castro neighborhood, was booked on December 10. He is currently being held in San Francisco County Jail on 15 separate charges, including battery with serious bodily injury, assault with force likely to commit great bodily injury, child endangerment, assault with a deadly weapon, contempt of court, vandalism, second degree robbery, and assault. He is being held on $101,000 bond.
In a December 22 letter to San Francisco Superior Court Judge A. Marissa Chun, Mandelman urged the court to stop the "revolving door" that has seen Triball bounce in and out of care numerous times to the detriment of both himself and the community. The letter was copied to several law enforcement leaders in San Francisco including District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, Public Defender Manohar Raju, Police Chief William Scott, and Director of Collaborative Courts Melanie Kushnir-Pappalardo.
Triball is being represented by attorney Adam Lipson, with the San Francisco Public Defender's Office. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday afternoon.
"Mr. Triball's persistent violent behavior and frequent re-arrests since my last letter [of February 2, 2021] continue to suggest that the current approach of court-mandated treatment with minimal supervision is not working," wrote Mandelman.
The supervisor's letter included a litany of offenses perpetrated by Triball.
"In September 2021, he was arrested for misdemeanor battery upon an SFPD officer and emergency personnel (case number 21009141)," Mandelman wrote, "and in December 2021 he disrupted the World AIDS Day event on Castro Street and was arrested for felony vandalism (case number 21011974). Mr. Triball remained in custody until May 2022. Within six months of that release, in November 2022, Mr. [Triball] punched someone in the face and broke their nose outside a Castro bar, resulting in charges of felony assault and three misdemeanors (case number 22013123). Less than weeks after this most recent violent encounter, Mr. Triball was released again on his own recognizance and skipped a court hearing before he was arrested for failure to appear."
Mandelman contended to the judge that "Mr. Triball appears before you on December 22nd posing an even greater danger to himself and others than in 2020 when my office was first made aware of his concerning behavior. (My office has also been informed of several 5150 calls about Mr. Triball since my last letter.)"
In June of 2020, Triball attacked a family in a Castro park months after attacking Zack Karlsson in the middle of a busy Saturday afternoon at 18th and Castro streets, as the Bay Area Reporter reported at the time. (There was confusion about Triball's correct name, and he is referred to as Triball Zero in those early stories.)
Karlsson, a tech CEO who lived and worked in the Castro at the time, made a citizen's arrest, and police cited Triball for battery following the February incident. Karlsson, a gay man, accused Triball of punching him in the head while walking behind him crossing the street at 18th and Castro. Four months later, Canela Bistro and Wine Bar owner Mat Schuster called police after Triball allegedly harassed him in the Castro, screaming and following him closely during a 30-minute chase.
About five months after Triball attacked Karlsson, the CEO told the B.A.R. he had lived — "and loved" — the Castro for four years but was starting to rethink that. Since then, he and his husband have moved to Oakland, a decision that was pushed along by the attack.
Karlsson, in a phone interview with the B.A.R. the day before this month's scheduled hearing, said he has been in therapy since Triball's assault.
"I'm mad as hell," he said. "It was severely anxiety inducing."
However, Karlsson said he has little faith that Triball will be put into conservatorship or any other substantive care and treatment. Several judges, including Chun, who will be leading the hearing, have let Triball walk after past incidents, he said.
After Karlsson was quoted in the B.A.R. in 2020, he said he was contacted by six different people who had also been attacked by Triball but didn't press charges because they felt nothing would be done. One person who reached out had been attacked only the day before Triball attacked Karlsson.
"Nobody did their jobs," he said.
Nonetheless, Karlsson said he is planning to be at the December 23 hearing, and he's hopeful he'll be allowed to speak during public comment. But he's not holding his breath. These decisions are made by "the bridge and tunnel crowd," said Karlsson, who don't have to live with the outcomes of their decisions.
In his letter to Judge Chun, Mandelman said Triball is a danger to the community.
"That Mr. Triball continues to violently harm random people in the Castro — people he does not know with whom he has no history — makes him especially dangerous. On behalf of the concerned Castro community members who have been harassed, threatened, and abused, I strongly urge that Mr. Triball be held in custody."
Karlsson said he hopes the judge takes action this time and puts Triball into conservatorship, unlike previous times.
"This is about a single psychopathic man that the judicial system allows to continue to plague and torment our community," he said.
Ultimately, Karlsson fears the consequences could be even worse someday.
"He's gonna kill somebody," said Karlsson.
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