Eight Months After January 6, Prosecutors Make Aggressive Maneuvers As Defendant Attempts Suicide, Another Beaten In Jail

Some sixty people are still behind bars eight months after the January 6 disturbance at the U.S. Capitol. A Daily Wire review of court records shows unusually aggressive prosecutorial maneuvers, which sometimes brought rebukes by judges.

For example, Jose Padilla has been detained since February. “Padilla is 40 years old and has lived in Tennessee for most of his life. He previously served in the U.S. Army during the Iraq War. After he returned home, he was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (‘PTSD’) and began receiving disability benefits. Prior to his arrest, he was a stay-at-home dad who managed his family’s household affairs and cared for his three sons during the day while his wife worked as a librarian. He has no criminal history or history of substance abuse. He also has no known ties to extremist groups,” Judge John D. Bates summarized.

Prosecutors argued that his being a stay-at-home dad and veteran were reasons to hold him in jail.

The judge wrote that “the government contended that two features of Padilla’s background favor pretrial detention: (1) his role as a stay-at-home dad, which, according to the government, gives him ‘idle time to . . . engage in conspiracy theories’ and ‘[run] down rabbit holes through social media.’ The Court cannot accept the proposition that stay-at-home parents pose a greater threat to public safety. And although the Court agrees with Judge Faruqui’s statement that, as a former service member, Padilla had every reason to know that ‘what occurred on January 6th was totally unacceptable,’ the fact of military service is complicated and can cut both ways.” – READ MORE