Kansas man with ‘just minimal’ legal training to represent himself in Capitol riot case
A Kansas man facing eight charges in the Capitol riot — including allegedly trying to force open a door inside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office suite — will be allowed to represent himself in the case, a federal judge has ruled.
William Pope, of Topeka, told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras at a hearing Tuesday that he wanted to waive his constitutional right to counsel and proceed on his own.
“Your honor, I feel like I know the facts of my case better than anyone,” Pope, 36, told the judge during his appearance by video conference in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“And I feel, you know, I’m going to be the one who most vigorously defends myself in trial. As you’ve noted, the charges against me that the government has brought are very serious. And I believe that I need a vigorous defense to counteract those. And I believe I’m the best one able to do that.”
Pope said he had completed two master’s degrees and was currently in a Ph.D. program, but had “just minimal” legal training.
After a lengthy round of questions, Contreras determined that Pope was competent to proceed without an attorney and said the court would appoint stand-by counsel to assist him if needed. His next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 1.
Pope faces eight counts, including civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding — both felonies — as well as disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and impeding passage through a Capitol building or grounds.
During the hearing, Contreras went over the charges one by one and explained the maximum penalties for each if convicted. The maximum penalty for all eight counts combined, if the sentences were to run consecutively, would be 29½ years imprisonment and more than $800,000 in fines.
After each count, Contreras asked Pope if he understood the penalties he faced. Each time, Pope said he did.
“I’m not gonna have much money left over, your honor,” he said.
Pope, a former Topeka City Council candidate, was arrested in February 2021 after he contacted the FBI’s online tip system to turn himself in, court documents show. He said he was in the Capitol on Jan. 6 but “did not damage any property or engage in any violence.” He was later indicted along with his brother, Michael Pope, of Sandpoint, Idaho.
According to the charging documents, a U.S. Capitol Police officer told the FBI he was inside the Senate doors on the east side of the Capitol on Jan. 6 when he came in contact with William Pope. The officer said Pope resisted his attempt to stop him from entering the building and blocked authorities from closing the door to prevent other rioters from getting in.
Pope also was identified on surveillance videos inside the Capitol, including footage that showed him and his brother in the hallway outside Pelosi’s offices, the documents said. The video shows Pope appearing to strike one of the office doors several times with the bottom of a flagpole he was carrying, then attempting to force the door open by lunging at it.
Pope complained at a hearing last month that his original court-appointed attorney had been slow in providing him the partial batches of discovery that had been received from the government. And, he said, his current attorney did not have the technological skills to share the digital materials with him.
He also complained that prosecutors still had not provided him with the full discovery documents for his case and that in their charging documents had incorrectly stated that he had only reported himself to the FBI after stories had been published in the media saying he was involved in the insurrection.
Pope ran for Topeka City Council in 2019 and had been a student with Kansas State University’s Leadership Communication Doctoral Program. He also was a recent graduate teaching assistant at K-State. A K-State spokeswoman said last month that he is no longer enrolled at or employed by the university.
