NJ Beastie, 25, Arrested For 'Attacking Recent Liver Transplant Recipient, 54, In Staples

[Sugar Cookie]

A New Jersey woman has been arrested for allegedly knocking down a liver transplant recipient and breaking her leg during a dispute over a face mask at a store.

The Hackensack Police Department on Tuesday announced the arrest of Terri Thomas, 25, on an aggravated assault charge in connection to the violent attack on 54-year-old Margot Kagan, which took place inside a Staples store on July 29.

According to investigators, Kagan was using a fax machine at the office supply store in Hackensack when a woman, later identified as Thomas, approached a machine next to her.

Thomas had a face mask on that was pulled down below her mouth, as seen in viral surveillance video.

Police said Kagan, who underwent a liver transplant four months ago and was walking with the aid of a cane, asked Thomas to put her mask over her mouth, reported ABC 7 NY.

Kagan's request allegedly sent Thomas into a rage and she yelled profanities at her before hurling the older woman to the ground.

Video of the clash has been viewed on Hackensack Police Department's Facebook page more than 313,000 times as of Wednesday afternoon.

It begins with Thomas marching up to Kagan with her finger pointed at the woman and having some words with her.

Kagan, who is seen wearing a black mask and a plastic visor over her face to protect herself from the spread of COVID-19, backs away and tries to create distance between herself and Thomas by raising her cane in front of her.

Thomas then grabs the woman's cane, yanks it out of her hands and throws Kagan to the floor before walking away.

Several people, including Staples employees, are seen standing around looking at the injured woman laying on the floor, but no one immediately comes to her aid.

Thomas then returns and walks past Kagan, who unsuccessfully tries to trip her with her foot.

Capt. Darrin DeWitt, of Hackensack police, stressed that Staples staffers did call 911 and tended to the victims moments later, but their efforts were not captured on video.

Kagan was later taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with a fractured left tibia that required surgery to put a steel plate inside her knee.

Following her arrest, Thomas was released with a summons. She is due back in court on August 24.

Woman arrested for 'attacking liver transplant recipient over mask'

Terri Thomas, 25, has been charged with aggravated assault in the July 29 attack on Margot Kagan, 54, at a Staples in Hackensack, New Jersey, which was caught on surveillance video.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Blunderbuss Firozabad]

Oh dear God.
After waiting and waiting on the list for an available organ, and now being susceptible to all and sundry viruses, and then this thing, Terri Thomas, comes across her path in such a savage, uncivilized way?
My husband died before he was able to receive his transplant. It would be my mugshot up there for bashing in her skull with that copy machine had she been a threat to him.
Brutalizing frail people...vicious and soul-dead.

Gimme a copier, I want to whack that pleased look off her useless face, and harvest her organs for worthwhile people. UGH!! .

 

[Blizzard]

She sure does look happy and proud of herself. That's an evil look I've seen before, it was on that awful woman's face as she was tormenting that immigrant grass cutting dude.

 

[Babs]

I wouldn't want this nasty bitch's organs due to possible cell memory. I have a friend who had a kidney transplant and he immediately started cooking fancy meals and drinking beer - things he never had any interest in before. Mild case but I now believe cell memory has some merit. So, anyone with a transplanted organ from this beast might develop a penchant for tossing old ladies! LOL!

Cellular memory is the idea that memories and personality traits can be stored in any individual cells or in other organs, not just in the brain. ... A second study that interviewed 47 transplant recipients found that 6% of patients felt that their personalities had changed because of their new organ.

 

[Brillig]

Kill her, she is a waste of space.

 

[caitierig]

This is such a dumb thing, but it’s a pet peeve of mine. Just wear the fucking mask and if you are that opposed to it, LEAVE. It’s the same reason I cannot have a conversation with anti vaxxers-there are other people in your immediate vicinity that could be put at life threatening risk due to your selfish negligence. Fuck this lady. I want to infect her with a virus and then tip her like a cow daily for a few years

 

[Blizzard]

I want to infect her with a virus and then tip her like a cow daily for a few years

haha! I would have never thought to say that.

 

[Sevens My Charm]

with this person's age, organ transplant, immune system, opening her leg up for fracture and normal hospital germs.. it would honestly surprise me her survival rate in the short term

 

[Jaded]

People still fax?

 

[Keepalowprofile]

@Blunderbuss Firozabad

Brutalizing frail people...vicious and soul-dead.

And looking very pleased.

 

[Jaded]

She sure does look happy and proud of herself. That's an evil look I've seen before, it was on that awful woman's face as she was tormenting that immigrant grass cutting dude.

If you’re referring to her picture, I think that’s her driver’s license photo. Mugshots don’t usually have a blue background.

 

[Sejanus]

That is one belligerent cunt.

 

[Blizzard]

If you’re referring to her picture, I think that’s her driver’s license photo. Mugshots don’t usually have a blue background.

Could be, but I found a different version of the pic that had some police department lettering on it so it's confusing.

 

[Keepalowprofile]

If you’re referring to her picture, I think that’s her driver’s license photo. Mugshots don’t usually have a blue background.

I guess that shit eating grin is her normal look then.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

August 20, 2025

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.

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.

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.

"This matter has been fully addressed in court. The judge imposed a fair sentence in accordance with the law. We respect the court's decision and, out of respect for all involved, will not be making further comment," Thomas's attorney Heather Aguilar said in a statement.

New Jersey woman frustrated as attacker who shattered her knee in mask confrontation gets probation

A New Jersey woman says her life was forever changed after she was assaulted back in 2020, but her attacker averted jail time.

www.cbsnews.com

The woman should not have been attacked and she also should have went about her business and not told another person what they should or should not be doing.