Slipped through the cracks

Federal prosecutors admitted Monday to losing track of one jailed defendant in the storming of the Capitol and conceded that the indictment against him should be dismissed, but they urged a judge to permit the charges to be refiled because of the seriousness of his alleged attack on police during the Jan. 6 riot.

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Denney was arrested in Mansfield, Texas, on Dec. 13 on a criminal complaint charging that he grappled with police at the Capitol, swung a metal pole at an officer and threw projectiles at a line of police. He appeared in federal court in Del Rio, Texas, on Dec. 14 and Dec. 17, where a magistrate judge ordered that he remain in custody and be transferred to Washington to face charges.

Denney then seemed to disappear from the court system for a couple of months. Records show he arrived Jan. 31 at a jail in Warsaw, Va., used to hold some federal court suspects. Denney’s attorney, John Pierce, was aware by Feb. 4 of his client’s arrival in Virginia, emails show.

In a highly unusual court filing, lawyers from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the handling of the case against Texas resident Lucas Denney violated his rights under the Speedy Trial Act. Prosecutors said errors and oversights led to Denney sitting in a Virginia jail for weeks last month as he awaited his first court appearance in Washington, D.C.

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Denney’s lawyers filed an emergency motion for his release on March 2, citing the protracted delays in his appearance and the failure of the government to obtain an indictment in his case within 30 days of his initial court appearance in Texas.

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But during a chaotic afternoon hearing held by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Randy Moss, defense attorneys for Denney dropped their earlier bid to dismiss the case and instead sought to have him plead guilty before prosecutors could add more charges to a single-count indictment a grand jury returned last week.

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The charge Denney faces can carry a term of up to 20 years in prison. The judge also cautioned that, under federal sentencing rules, so-called “uncharged conduct” can be used to lengthen a sentence.

“I have real concerns about Mr. Denney’s rights,” the judge warned. “Your client could end up with a very lengthy sentence in a sort of rush to cut the government off.”

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U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said the Justice Department seemed overwhelmed by the work required to pursue criminal cases against the nearly 800 defendants they have charged in the Capitol riot.

“The government has chosen to charge the largest case ever,” said Faruqui, who noted he was formerly a prosecutor in the same U.S. Attorney’s Office leading the investigation. “If they do not have the resources to do it, they ought not do that. … It feels like the government has bitten off more than it can chew here.”

Faruqui also apologized profusely to Denney.

“You have been lost for months,” the judge said. “There’s no excuse to treat a human being like that. … There is no circumstance under which any person should be forgotten.”

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However, the judge said he could not release Denney because — on the same day as his first court appearance in Washington last week — prosecutors obtained a single-count grand jury indictment charging him with assaulting a police officer with a metal pole amidst the Jan. 6 riot.

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While Faruqui said last week that Denney’s case was an aberration and prosecutors termed it “an isolated incident,” early last year, there were numerous unexplained delays in Jan. 6 defendants making their first court appearances. In one case, Faruqui himself complained forcefully about the three weeks it appeared to take for one detained defendant to be transferred from a Virginia jail to D.C. — a roughly two-hour drive.

  Politico

I would expect a counter-suit against the Federal Government. And perhaps his defense attorney.