Why 2 Pierce County men’s Capitol riot case won’t be delayed by Trump’s pardon pledge
A federal judge has rejected two Pierce County men’s efforts to pause their criminal case related to the January 2021 Capitol riot until President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
Richard Slaughter, a former Orting School Board member who resigned shortly after his arrest, and his stepson, Caden Paul Gottfried, are scheduled for trial Jan. 6, according to court records in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Earlier in November, an attorney representing the two men requested that the trial date be scrapped and a status conference be set for the week of Feb. 2, after Trump’s inauguration, since Trump has publicly declared he would pardon defendants involved in the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“The consequences of denying this motion would be – with history of the January 6 cases as a backdrop – almost certain convictions for felony and/or misdemeanor offenses that would otherwise not be likely to happen,” attorney William L. Shipley, Jr. wrote in a Nov. 11 filing.
On Nov. 27, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled against the two men’s motion, saying that it wouldn’t be unfair to the defendants to proceed with the scheduled trial, which had previously been delayed on three occasions, court records show.
“This Court’s duty is to uncover whether the defendants committed the unlawful things of which they are accused and, if they did, prescribe an appropriate and just punishment,” Lamberth wrote in his ruling. “Whatever happens afterwards is irrelevant.”
Slaughter and Gottfried, who were 40 and 20 at the time of their October 2022 arrests in Tacoma, face multiple charges. They allegedly illegally entered the Capitol grounds and joined others in the Lower West Terrace area, according to federal prosecutors.
Slaughter is accused of taking, or attempting to take, a baton from a Metropolitan Police Department officer, court records show. He allegedly attacked Capitol police with a “long pole,” handed chemical spray to another rioter in the crowd and kept a police shield from an officer after grabbing it from another rioter.
Gottfried purportedly used his body weight to push against a line of officers, federal prosecutors said.
Both men have pleaded not guilty. They face a combined 13 counts in a superseding indictment, including assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds. Slaughter is additionally alleged to have used a dangerous weapon and is also accused of robbery.
Others convicted or accused of involvement in storming the Capitol have similarly requested case delays in the wake of Trump’s re-election, USA Today reported earlier in November.
Special counsel Jack Smith on Nov. 25 moved to dismiss the four felony charges against Trump, who had been charged with allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election preceding the Capitol attack, citing Justice Department guidelines that prevent prosecution of a sitting president, multiple media outlets reported.
In his ruling filed Nov. 27, Lamberth said that the allegations in the special counsel’s prosecution bore no resemblance to the case against Slaughter and Gottfried.
“(T)he fact that the former has been discontinued has no obvious significance for the latter,” he wrote.
This story was originally published November 29, 2024 at 1:49 PM.
