A federal judge reportedly apologized on Monday to accused White House Correspondents’ Dinner attacker Cole Tomas Allen for how he has been treated in jail.
After his April 25 arrest, Allen was temporarily put on suicide watch in restrictive conditions, according to his attorneys, including being confined in a padded room in straitjacket-like restraints, while being subject to constant lighting and repeated strip searches.
“At a minimum, I should be apologizing to him,” Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui reportedly said during a hearing on Monday. “We are obligated to make sure he’s taken care of. Mr. Allen, I’m sorry that things have not been the way they are supposed to.”
“To me, it’s extremely disturbing that he was put in five-point restraints, a person with no criminal history,” the judge added, arguing even people accused of attempting to storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, hadn’t faced such conditions. “It’s troubling. I never heard of one Jan. 6 defendant who was put in five-point restraints or in a safe cell. If the only way to keep him safe is the most punitive thing, that’s a problem.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.
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