Jan. 6 defendant expected to plead guilty to single charge after prosecutors forgot to indict him
A Texas man pleaded guilty Thursday to assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon at the Jan. 6 riot, potentially avoiding decades in prison after federal prosecutors lost track of his case for months.
Earlier this week prosecutors admitted to the mistake and moved to have the charges against Denney dropped so they could return to a grand jury for an indictment on all of the original charges.But Denney’s attorney, William Shipley, caught prosecutors and U.S. District Judge Randy Moss off guard when he dropped the motion to dismiss the charge and instead announced his client intended to plead guilty.
Denney is accused of grappling with police at the Capitol, swinging a metal pole at an officer and throwing multiple items at police after recruiting others to travel to Washington equipped for a fight. He was arrested on eight charges, including conspiracy. Judge Moss said there could be an argument that adding more charges later would violate Denney’s protections against being tried twice for the same crime, also known as double jeopardy, but he emphasized that the government would likely bring more charges against Denney. Federal circuit courts are split on whether double jeopardy applies in such a situation, and the District of Columbia Circuit Court has not weighed in.
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