Thread by @ZoeTillman

Hello from Judge Timothy Kelly’s courtroom (they’re in-person, I’m virtual), where a hearing is about to start on Jan. 6 defendant Dominic Pezzola’s latest effort to get out of jail. Pezzola is charged in a Proud Boys conspiracy and with using a stolen riot shield to break in

Pezzola is arguing that he's being mistreated at the DC jail and doesn't have sufficient access to his lawyers to prepare his defense, and that there are release conditions that could ensure community safety s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2098…

Prosecutors argue nothing significant has changed since a judge last considered whether to keep Pezzola in pretrial detention, and that his complaints about jail conditions/atty access don't meet the bar for the judge to revisit the issue now s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2104…

Govt argues evidence of Pezzola's "obstructive and destructive intent" is "strong", saying he led the charge to the Capitol and celebrated: "Victory smoke in the Capitol, boys. This is fucking awesome. I knew we could take this motherfucker over [if we] just tried hard enough"

Of 600+ Jan. 6 defendants, Pezzola is one of ~70 in pretrial detention (# can change daily depending on arrests, but that's roughly the population right now). Most are charged with violent crimes. On how judges have decided who to keep behind bars: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

Pezzola's bond hearing just got underway, but Judge Timothy Kelly begins by saying Pezzola's lawyers want to make representations under seal, so he's going to close the courtroom to hear why, and if he agrees to hear that under seal, will do so first. So, silence again for now.

Oh no, a rep from AT&T got on the line to say it appeared the call had been dropped by the host, and now the call has been ended. So, hopefully I can figure out a way to get back on once they're no longer in a sealed proceeding!

Back on hold and fingers crossed the line will pick up again once they're done doing things under seal. As @JordanOnRecord accurately put it, this hold music is the "good one" at least

The public line has pinged back on for Dominic Pezzola's bond hearing, roughly 40 minutes after the judge went into a sealed proceeding with the lawyers

Kelly begins by asking if there's ever been a case where a judge considered jail conditions as part of the set Bail Reform Act factors that judges must weigh in deciding whether to order pretrial detention. Pezzola's lawyer acknowledges there aren't cases that are on-point

The BRA factors re: pretrial detention are - nature/circumstances of the offense, weight of evidence against the defendant, defendant's history and characteristics, seriousness of danger posed to the community

Pezzola's lawyer stresses that they're arguing that his constitutional rights are being violated, notwithstanding whether confinement conditions fall under the BRA. Kelly questions if release can be a remedy for that — wouldn't the fix be to resolve violation re: attorney access?

Kelly notes that the DC jail has a policy in place to accomodate requests for access to evidence for incarcerated defendants, and asks Pezzola's lawyer if they've tried that process. Atty says no, because they don't trust it'll work. Kelly is not satisfied with that answer

Kelly says examples of access delays in other cases aren't enough: "I don’t know how I can conclude its constitutionally deficient."

Pezzola's lawyer says they can try to go through the DC Dept. of Corrections process, and reserve right to come back to court if it doesn't work

Pezzola's lawyer notes that other Jan. 6 defendants have been released (and later lists several names of people charged with certain violent crimes), and Kelly quips that he's aware since he's released some of them

Kelly notes that to reopen a bail decision that he already made, there has to be new information or something that wasn't known at the time of the original decision. Judge says he's not really seeing that here, and asks Pezzola's lawyers to explain

Pezzola's other atty Steven Metcalf is up (prev. Martin Tankleff) - he discusses suitability of proposed third-party custodian (wife), how the law on pretrial detention in Jan. 6 cases has changed in the past few months, reiterates they don't believe there's an articulable threat

Metcalf stresses they believe the DC jail has not been willing to reasonably accomodate access. Have they traveled to DC (they're in NY) to deliver a CD with materials? No, he says, because they don't trust jail officials to properly handle or give it to him in a timely manner

Kelly says that if he denies the request to reopen Pezzola's detention status under the BRA factors, he wants defense counsel to know that he'll still take seriously their access concerns and try to better understand what's going on and help the situation

AUSA Erik Kenerson is now up, and his argument is straightforward: confinement conditions simply don't fall under the BRA factors that dictate pretrial detention decisions. He agrees with Kelly that if there's any constitutional issue re: atty access, remedy wouldn't be release

Kenerson says they're aware of the materials access issue and are in negotiations with the federal public defender's office to come up with a proposal that they can present to the DC Dept. of Corrections

Finally, Kenerson argues that Pezzola's lawyers haven't presented anything else new that wasn't already before the court during the previous detention decision (incl. suitability of the custodian)

Kenerson says they've submitted videos to the court in support of their position, and they didn't play them at the hearing, but don't oppose public release via the normal request process (a media coalition that incl. @BuzzFeedNews has been making these requests in J6 cases)

Kelly isn't going to rule from the bench, but signaled throughout the hearing that he's very skeptical that Pezzola can meet the legal requirements for reopening his pretrial detention status. TBD, they're all due back in court on Friday for a status hearing