Synthaholic
Diamond Member
- Jul 21, 2010
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- #241
No one has ever claimed that Trumpers are smart. In fact, they are imbeciles who are convinced that they are "special".
As you read this, keep in mind that McFadden is the judge he is standing in front of.
www.wusa9.com
Author: Jordan Fischer, Eric Flack, Stephanie Wilson
Published: 11:47 AM EDT October 13, 2021
Updated: 11:47 AM EDT October 13, 2021
WASHINGTON â Before his bond hearing began Tuesday, a federal judge warned Brandon Fellows he could be opening himself up to perjury â or even obstruction of justice â charges if he testified on his own behalf, and that he would likely be going back to jail, regardless. Two hours later, the judgeâs warning turned out to be prescient.
âMost people do not do this,â U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden told Fellows. âObviously your attorney has discouraged this. I do not think this is a good idea⌠but Iâm going to allow you to take the stand, if you wish.â
Fellows is an Albany, New York, resident under indictment on a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In charging documents, prosecutors say Fellows entered the Capitol through a broken window and wound up smoking marijuana in Sen. Jeff Merkleyâs (D-OR) office.
Fellows was initially granted pretrial release, but was ordered back into custody in June after repeated violations, including missing a court-ordered mental health evaluation and allegedly calling a probation officerâs mother. The Justice Department also said when a clerk of the court attempted to contact Fellows about another violation â allegations that he was harassing a former girlfriend â it was discovered he had apparently put the number for the judgeâs wifeâs office instead of his own.
Last month, Fellows asked McFadden to allow him to represent himself pro se in his case â saying he had spent the previous two weeks in the D.C. Jailâs law library and determined that was what he wanted. Despite warning him, repeatedly, of the possible consequences of going it alone with no formal law training, McFadden ultimately granted Fellowsâ request.
On Tuesday, Fellows appeared before the judge for his first full hearing as his own counsel to argue his bond status should be reconsidered. When McFadden denied his request to call his former public defender, Cara Halverson, as a witness, Fellows instead described a conversation he said he recorded with her about a âloopholeâ heâd found that could get McFadden removed from the case.
Fellows said he asked Halverson if he should contact McFaddenâs family as a means of disqualifying him from presiding over his case. He also said he had told Halverson â to her horror â about a previous occasion in which heâd intentionally put the phone number of another judgeâs wife as his emergency contact in order to get a new judge. In that case, the judge was replaced with another.
Fellows said Halverson told him that was illegal, and if that he tried to do that with McFadden he would wind up in jail on even more serious charges.
âWhen Iâm worried, I donât make the most understandable decisions,â Fellows told McFadden later in explanation.
Over the course of the nearly 2-hour hearing, Fellows rambled across a difficult-to-follow litany of complaints about his incarceration, stopping to touch on subjects as widely varied as the Taliban, Guantanamo Bay, a woman whoâd left her child in a dumpster and a âconstitutional lawyerâ who had allegedly advised him to wrap his cell phone in tin foil to avoid capture.
In her much shorter cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst got Fellows to admit â under oath â that he had climbed into the Capitol through a broken window without police permission, that he had used the previous judgeâs wifeâs contact information to try to get him removed from the case and that he had missed court-ordered mental health and drug testing appointments.
McFadden, having listened to him talk for nearly two hours, then brought Fellows back down to Earth.
âYou are charged with a federal felony,â McFadden said. âThis is not a community college where you get pats on the back.â
âYouâve admitted to incredible lapses of judgment here on the stand, not least of which was seeking to disqualify a New York state judge,â the judge continued. âYouâve admitted to obstruction of justice in that case, and youâve admitted to what was probably obstruction in this case in trying to have me disqualified, and only Ms. Halversonâs advice stopped you from doing so. Youâve engaged in a pattern of behaviors that shows contempt for the criminal justice system, and I just have no confidence that you will follow my orders if I release you.â
McFadden then denied Fellowsâ request to reopen his detention status and ordered him back into the custody of the D.C. Jail.
As you read this, keep in mind that McFadden is the judge he is standing in front of.
Capitol rioter admits to two new felonies while representing himself in bond hearing
Brandon Fellows sought to have his bond status revoked, only to make the legal case against him stronger.
www.wusa9.com
Capitol rioter admits to two new felonies while representing himself in bond hearing
Brandon Fellows sought to have his bond status revoked, only to make the legal case against him stronger.Author: Jordan Fischer, Eric Flack, Stephanie Wilson
Published: 11:47 AM EDT October 13, 2021
Updated: 11:47 AM EDT October 13, 2021
WASHINGTON â Before his bond hearing began Tuesday, a federal judge warned Brandon Fellows he could be opening himself up to perjury â or even obstruction of justice â charges if he testified on his own behalf, and that he would likely be going back to jail, regardless. Two hours later, the judgeâs warning turned out to be prescient.
âMost people do not do this,â U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden told Fellows. âObviously your attorney has discouraged this. I do not think this is a good idea⌠but Iâm going to allow you to take the stand, if you wish.â
Fellows is an Albany, New York, resident under indictment on a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In charging documents, prosecutors say Fellows entered the Capitol through a broken window and wound up smoking marijuana in Sen. Jeff Merkleyâs (D-OR) office.
Fellows was initially granted pretrial release, but was ordered back into custody in June after repeated violations, including missing a court-ordered mental health evaluation and allegedly calling a probation officerâs mother. The Justice Department also said when a clerk of the court attempted to contact Fellows about another violation â allegations that he was harassing a former girlfriend â it was discovered he had apparently put the number for the judgeâs wifeâs office instead of his own.
Last month, Fellows asked McFadden to allow him to represent himself pro se in his case â saying he had spent the previous two weeks in the D.C. Jailâs law library and determined that was what he wanted. Despite warning him, repeatedly, of the possible consequences of going it alone with no formal law training, McFadden ultimately granted Fellowsâ request.
On Tuesday, Fellows appeared before the judge for his first full hearing as his own counsel to argue his bond status should be reconsidered. When McFadden denied his request to call his former public defender, Cara Halverson, as a witness, Fellows instead described a conversation he said he recorded with her about a âloopholeâ heâd found that could get McFadden removed from the case.
Fellows said he asked Halverson if he should contact McFaddenâs family as a means of disqualifying him from presiding over his case. He also said he had told Halverson â to her horror â about a previous occasion in which heâd intentionally put the phone number of another judgeâs wife as his emergency contact in order to get a new judge. In that case, the judge was replaced with another.
Fellows said Halverson told him that was illegal, and if that he tried to do that with McFadden he would wind up in jail on even more serious charges.
âWhen Iâm worried, I donât make the most understandable decisions,â Fellows told McFadden later in explanation.
Over the course of the nearly 2-hour hearing, Fellows rambled across a difficult-to-follow litany of complaints about his incarceration, stopping to touch on subjects as widely varied as the Taliban, Guantanamo Bay, a woman whoâd left her child in a dumpster and a âconstitutional lawyerâ who had allegedly advised him to wrap his cell phone in tin foil to avoid capture.
In her much shorter cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst got Fellows to admit â under oath â that he had climbed into the Capitol through a broken window without police permission, that he had used the previous judgeâs wifeâs contact information to try to get him removed from the case and that he had missed court-ordered mental health and drug testing appointments.
McFadden, having listened to him talk for nearly two hours, then brought Fellows back down to Earth.
âYou are charged with a federal felony,â McFadden said. âThis is not a community college where you get pats on the back.â
âYouâve admitted to incredible lapses of judgment here on the stand, not least of which was seeking to disqualify a New York state judge,â the judge continued. âYouâve admitted to obstruction of justice in that case, and youâve admitted to what was probably obstruction in this case in trying to have me disqualified, and only Ms. Halversonâs advice stopped you from doing so. Youâve engaged in a pattern of behaviors that shows contempt for the criminal justice system, and I just have no confidence that you will follow my orders if I release you.â
McFadden then denied Fellowsâ request to reopen his detention status and ordered him back into the custody of the D.C. Jail.
