Judge in Capitol riot case: Get set for trial

Jan. 26—The attorneys for a Thomasville woman and other members of a militia group facing charges in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and storming of the U.S. Capitol better do their best to be ready for a trial in mid-April, a federal judge said Tuesday.

Laura Lee Steele, 53, a former High Point Police Department officer, now faces seven charges in an updated indictment issued earlier this month after 11 other members of the Oath Keepers separately became the first people charged with the much more serious felony of seditious conspiracy — essentially, inciting a rebellion against the government — in connection with Jan. 6.

Those 11 now are in one case moving forward, and Steele's charges are part of a separate case involving five other Oath Keepers members.

During a status conference Tuesday, Judge Amit Mehta of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia discussed the possibility of an April 19 trial date for the group that includes Steele. Steele's attorney, Peter Cooper, and other defense attorneys said they don't think they can be ready for a trial that soon.

But Mehta said that the "case is going to go forward" because it has been nearly a year since most of the defendants first were arrested. Also, because of COVID-19-related limits on trials, there are few opportunities to set a different date — July is the next available window, and the next after that is September.

"You have ample time to get ready, in my view," Mehta said.

Prosecutors contend that members of the Oath Keepers planned and executed a coordinated assault on the building to try to keep Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

According to court papers, Steele joined the group just a short time before Jan. 6 at the urging of her brother, Graydon Young, 55, of Florida. Young pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, and he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the remaining Oath Keepers cases.

pjohnson@hpenews.com — 336-888-3528 — @HPEpaul