Christian Woman Tries To Convert Jewish Neighbor By Kicking And Slapping Her, Prosecutors Say

A Christian woman in Boise, Idaho, attempted to convert a Jewish resident to Christianity last week by physically assaulting her in her own home, then scratching the word “death” into the victim’s mailbox, prosecutors in Ada County, Idaho, charge. A week after the attack, the victim still suffers neck pains from where 58-year-old Margurite Dawn Haragan stomped her foot across the Jewish woman’s throat, court documents say.

Police in Boise labeled the attack a hate crime. Haragan has been charged with two counts of malicious harassment and is currently being held on $100,000 bond, with prosecutors arguing that a lower bond would put the victim, identified in court papers only by the initials A.G., at a significant safety risk.

While the court papers did not make clear how Haragan and A.G. know each other, prosecutors say that the Christian woman had previously harassed A.G. for an unspecified period of time, making repeated phone calls demanding that the Jewish woman convert to Christianity.

But on February 5, Haragan took her religious proselytizing to a new and violent level, the prosecutors say.

That’s when Haragan showed up uninvited at A.G.’s home and immediately began pounding on the victim’s front window and screaming, “You better believe in Jesus!” Haragan also told A.G. she refused to leave until the woman declared her conversion to the Christian religion.

A.G. then opened her front door, the court documents recount. She ordered Haragan to leave her property and began to write down the license plate of a car belonging to her religious harasser.

Instead of leaving, Haragan slapped her in the face.

The Christian woman then grabbed her victim by the hair and forcibly dragged her out of the house, throwing her to the ground. According to prosecutors, Haragan then violently kicked A.G. in the stomach and legs as she lay helpless on the ground, finally pressing her foot down on A.G.’s neck and pulling her head back sharply by clutching the woman’s hair.

Haragan told A.G. that she would not stop assaulting her until she declared her belief in Jesus Christ. In extreme pain, A.G. finally told Haragan that she would, in fact, become Christian.

That led Haragan to stop the assault, but two days later she returned to the woman’s home, reached into her mailbox and tore up her mail.” She then scratched the words “death bin bond” on the mailbox.

Police finally arrested Haragan on Wednesday and charged her the following day.

The Christian woman told a judge that she did not want a lawyer, declaring that she was “a sworn-in deputy of Ada County and I also give my oath that what I say is legal and binding.” But neither Ada County nor any of the nearby counties has any record of Haragan serving as a deputy.