Text Size

Email Post

Print Post

Comments (25)

Save Article

Duane Allen Hoffman

Suffering from AIDS and in a wheelchair, he says he'll be a happier man when he obtains the fruits of his successful legal campaign for the right to wear a yarmulke in his cell.

To Hoffman, an Orthodox Jew, it's about equal treatment. Catholic inmates at the jail are allowed to have rosaries, he claims, and African Americans are free to cover their heads with do-rags.

But in April, the Sheriff's Department took away his yarmulke, a cap worn by religiously observant Jewish men, saying a razor could be hidden beneath it. Hoffman, 48, sued in federal court, alleging religious discrimination.

Recently, Sheriff Michael Hennessey agreed Hoffman could have his yarmulke back, said spokeswoman Eileen Hirst. Despite the success, Hoffman says he won't drop his lawsuit until a judge orders the sheriff to provide yarmulkes to all inmates who want them.

"What about the next poor guy who wants a yarmulke but has no legal ability to pursue it?" asks Hoffman, who is acting as his own lawyer in his case.

"I admit I did things I am sorry for to get me here," he says. "But I had previously led an honorable, just and productive life, which always included devotion to my faith."

Hoffman describes himself as a "gentleman thief." He was arrested May 12, 2008, when he tried to have more than $800 in ties, shirts and cuff links from Neiman Marcus delivered to the downtown JW Marriott hotel, court records show.

Police said the credit card Hoffman used was stolen. Hoffman also is charged with using a stolen credit card to pay $10,000 in bills from three hotels in the city.

Overnight, Hoffman traded his 14th-floor room at the JW Marriott for a cell on the fifth floor of the jail adjacent to the Hall of Justice.

At first, Hoffman says, jailers allowed him to wear his yarmulke. But April 2, they took it away, allegedly after Hoffman filed a grievance complaining that jailers wouldn't allow a visiting rabbi to leave him a prayer shawl. He claims a jailer told him: "When you complain about something, you lose something else."

On April 23, Hoffman filed his handwritten lawsuit.

Hoffman's suit drew the sheriff's attention to "an inconsistency" in jail policy, said Hirst. The yarmulke will be provided through the jail commissary "to alleviate concerns about any contraband," she said. But, contrary to Hoffman's claim, she said the jail doesn't permit inmates to wear "do-rags," only see-through mesh "wave caps" to cover their hair.

In an interview in jail, Hoffman spoke somberly about his medical condition, saying he was in great pain. But he spoke with some pride of the years before his arrest, when he claimed he had lived the life of a glamorous identity thief, with a passion for young men, fabulous clothes, fine hotels and elegant cufflinks.

In an account that couldn't be confirmed, he said he grew up in Connecticut, the only child of wealthy parents. His father was a German Holocaust survivor, he claimed.

In the 1980s, he said he worked for the U.S. military as a "code-breaker," and served for a time in the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, where he said he had been injured in a bombing. Later, he said he lived the life of a "gentleman thief," defrauding "big companies and big institutions," spending lavishly.

Over the years, he said he had been repeatedly arrested in the United States and Europe on charges related to identity theft. He says his prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Mike Sullivan, and his public defender, Eric Quandt, are downplaying his extensive criminal career, perhaps to hide the government's failure to stop his theft spree.

Recently, Hoffman wrote again to the federal court, this time to complain that on May 16 two deputies entered his cell, demanded he withdraw his lawsuit, dumped him out of his wheelchair and kicked him in the ribs. Hirst said the district attorney's office is investigating.

Hoffman's trial date hasn't been set. If convicted of all 18 charges filed against him, he could be sentenced to more than 50 years in prison. Even if acquitted, Hoffman says he doesn't think he has a lot of options. Within a couple of years, he says, his neurological system will break down and his medical condition will worsen.

His grim prospects make the yarmulke all the more important, he says.

"Being terminally ill, alone, and in the jail infirmary, one needs religious comfort to endure," he says.

More of today's headlines

“Israel - The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to...” Israel - London Times: Saudis Give Nod to Israeli Raid on Iran “New York City - Noise from screeching brakes and roaring trains on subway platforms is so harsh on the ears that it can cause "permanent, irreversible, noise-induced...” New York City - Study: Screeching Noise From NYC Roaring Trains Can Cause Hearing Loss