Thread by @ZoeTillman

Hello from Judge Timothy Kelly's virtual courtroom, where a status hearing is underway in one of the Proud Boys cases, incl. defendant Dominic Pezzola. Kelly is about to announce a ruling on Pezzola's request to reopen the question of his pretrial detention

Kelly in March ordered Pezzola to stay in jail pending trial, and goes over some of the main reasons for that, incl. allegations he stole a police riot shield, used it to break a window into the Capitol, wore an earpiece, expressed support for returning to DC for more violence

Pezzola's main argument for reopening his detention status has to do with the conditions at the DC jail and problems accessing materials in his case, and Kelly says that just isn't one of the factors that goes into a pretrial detention decision

Kelly notes Pezzola's lawyer conceded he hadn't actually tried to go through the DC jail's discovery access process (atty argued they didn't trust it would work), so the judge says they have to try that first and then come back if it doesn't work

https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1440704412834435079

Kelly also finds that Pezzola hasn't presented any new/material information about the allegations against him and whether there's a suitable third-party custodian that would merit reopening his detention at this point

tldr: Dominic Pezzola — indicted in one of the Proud Boys conspiracy cases, charged with using a stolen riot shield to break a window that allowed the mob to get into the Capitol — will remain in jail after losing his latest challenge to his detention

AUSA says they just spoke with Pezzola's lawyer yesterday about whether the US atty's office can do anything to assist with the evidence access issues at the DC jail, judge says he's surprised it took so long for them to talk since it's been an issue for a while, "but so be it"

Pezzola's lawyer Steven Metcalf explains they've been trying to address the access issues for a while, and the convo yesterday was specifically about whether the US atty's office can do anything else to intervene and help

Judge moves on to scheduling. AUSA says they'd like to set another status hearing for early in the new year (and toll time again re: defendants' speedy trial rights) to give defendants time to review more evidence that's coming

Kelly signals he's open to suggestions for ways the court can hold the govt's feet to the fire in terms of facilitating evidence access, incl. having govt/parties jointly file status updates leading up to the next hearing date

No defense lawyer (there are three defendants, Pezzola and Matthew Greene are incarcerated, William Pepe is not) objects to setting another status hearing in early 2022 - no discussion of a trial date, this one is not that far along yet

Judge sets the next court date for Jan. 11, orders a report in the interim about status of discovery prodcution and evidence access for the incarcerated defendants

That's a wrap on that, the status report is due Dec. 3