Maryland Man Who Wore Work Badge to Capitol Riot Faces Bench Trial This Week Before Judge Sympathetic to January 6th Defendants

     The photo that came to define the Capitol riot was arguably that of QAnon Shaman Jacob Chansley surrounded by a dozen or so fellow rioters. These men were some of the most recognizable faces, and they haven't been getting off easily. Chansley himself pled guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding and was sentenced to 41 months in prison. Aaron Mostofsky, the "Caveman" rioter and son of a New York Supreme Court judge, was sentenced to eight months in prison for felony civil disorder and two related misdemeanor crimes. Dominic Pezzola, the Proud Boy who broke the window of the Capitol with a riot shield he robbed a police officer of, has been charged with seditious conspiracy and numerous other felonies and will have been in jail for at least 18 months if his trial begins as scheduled in late September. William Watson, the man pictured above in the yellow sweatshirt, is still facing numerous felony charges and was sent to jail for traveling to D.C. without permission when he was out on bond for state charges in Alabama related to his selling marijuana and LSD after his arrest in July 2020.

     There is a case I'm worried about, however: that of Nicholas Rodean, the Maryland man seen to Chansley's left who wore his work badge to the riot and was promptly fired and arrested on a felony charge. Overall, the prosecution of the January 6th cases has been a slam dunk for prosecutors; aside from nearly 350 guilty pleas and 210 sentences, there have been a dozen trials when Mr. Rodean's, scheduled for July 11th, takes place. Guy Reffitt, the Texas man who threatened his own son for turning him in, was convicted by a jury of numerous felonies and/or misdemeanors, as was Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli, the Nazi sympathizer military contractor from New Jersey; Dustin Thompson, the Ohio man who said Trump made him walk to the Capitol and steal a bottle of liquor; Thomas Robertson, the Rocky Mount police officer who gave the middle finger in a selfie in the Capitol and whose partner pled guilty to a felony and testified against him; Thomas Webster, the retired NYPD officer who brutally beat a cop at the Capitol and then claimed self-defense; and Anthony Williams, a Michigan man who resisted law enforcement efforts to force rioters out on January 6th. Whether it took four hours or four days, all six were convicted on all counts by juries, including at least one felony carrying years in prison for each man. 

     Bench trials have seen more moderate success for one reason: Jesus Rivera, a Florida man convicted of all four misdemeanors he was charged with by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, was the only man not to have his bench trial before Trevor McFadden. A Trump-appointed judge, McFadden has gone to bat for rioters, saying he believes they are being treated more harshly by the DOJ than Black Lives Matter protestors were. He has handed out the consistently shortest sentences of any of the judges overseeing these cases. He presided of the case of Couy Griffin, the Cowboys for Trump founder who returned to Washington, D.C. armed to stalk Joe Biden's inauguration and later tried to overturn the election results in Otero County, New Mexico, where Griffin is finishing a stint as a county commissioner. McFadden asked sarcastically whether somebody would be prosecuted for retrieving a hat they dropped on Capitol grounds before convicting him of only one of the two Capitol riot charges against him and sentencing him to just 20 days in jail with a year of probation and $3,500 in fines and restitution. He delivered the only acquittal in the Capitol riot cases, that of Matthew Martin, who was acquitted of two misdemeanors because, in McFadden's words, there was "no way of knowing what he was doing was illegal." There are no signs telling people not to commit murder, yet that's not a legal defense. Ignorance of the law is being above the law, according to Judge McFadden. He even went to bat, albeit unsuccessfully, for Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli, excluding evidence related to his being a white supremacist from the jury trial. He did convict Hunter Seefried and his father, Kevin, who famously flew the Confederate flag in the Capitol, of felony and misdemeanor charges while acquitting Hunter of a few other misdemeanors related to clearing broken glass from a window to enter the Capitol. 

     The fact that Trevor McFadden will have overseen five of the six bench trials, delivering the only acquittal and only mixed verdicts to stem from trials before any other judge either bench or jury is absolutely ridiculous. Bench trials generally last two or three days, so it should be known by Wednesday what happens to one of the higher-profile insurrectionists, Nicholas Rodean. Normally, Capitol riot trials have been easy. Eight of the 11 cases tried so far have resulted in convictions on all counts (including every felony count), two have resulted in mixed verdicts (neither suspect got off for felony crimes in these cases), and just one low-level defendant has been acquitted, and that's even with McFadden being the most prolific and infamous judge to oversee these cases. There's usually a small feeling of doubt but an overwhelming sense of confidence surrounding these trials. In Nicholas Rodean's case, it's really 50-50. Will he be convicted of the felony but not of the misdemeanors, convicted of a misdemeanor but not the felony charge, or acquitted entirely? We'll soon have the answer.