A GEOPHYSICIST who allegedly dragged a cop to be viciously beaten by a man with a flagpole during the US Capitol riots, later tried to flee the country and kill himself, a court has heard.
Jeffrey Sabol, 51, of Colorado, can allegedly be seen in a video "dragging a police officer down a set of stairs just outside the Capitol" during the insurgence in Washington DC on January 6, prosecutors claim.
"This allows another man, who's standing nearby, to beat that police officer with an American flag ironically, as the officer is being dragged down the stairs," Assistant US Attorney Benjamin Gianforti said at the electronic hearing through the US District Court in White Plains, New York.
Sabol later “admitted to being in a fit of rage” during the attack on the officer and allegedly told authorities that his memory from much of the day was foggy, according to Gianforti.
Sabol attempted suicide sometime after the insurgence in Washington DC on January 6, a prosecutor said at Sabol’s arraignment, CNBC reports.
He also bought a plane ticket from Boston to Zurich, Switzerland, Gianforti alleged.
“He has the financial wherewithal to flee these charges,” Gianforti said.
The prosecutor said authorities have reason to believe that Sabol may “have assaulted another police officer” with a baton that he is seen wielding during the riot.
US Magistrate Judge Andrew Krause ordered Sabol held without bond on a criminal complaint filed against him in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., calling him a danger to the community and a risk of flight.
“That conduct is beyond the pale and it is troubling to a degree that is really … shocking,” Krause said in ordering Sabol’s detention on a charge of civil disorder.
“These are extremely serious actions and these actions have consequences,”
Krause went on to describe the allegations as "very disturbing, deeply troubling" and said that Sabol needed to remain behind bars.
"What we see is Mr. Sabol, part of a group of people dragging a law enforcement officer down the steps of a building at the Capitol, where that officer has been repeatedly assaulted by a number of people, apparently including Mr. Sabol," Krause said.
The judge said he also saw video footage that showed Sabol going back up the stairs after the first officer was dragged down to possibly look for someone else to bring "down those stairs into the teeth of that mob that was at the Capitol that day".
Sabol, a divorced father of three who grew up in New York state and whose sister is a colonel in the U.S. Army, was arrested Friday morning at the Westchester Medical Center.
The man who pummeled the officer with the flag pole has been identified by federal prosecutors as Peter Stager, an Arkansas resident who was arrested last week in his home state on a charge of civil disorder.
Stager was ordered held without bond during a federal court hearing in Arkansas later Friday afternoon.
Sabol’s court-appointed attorney, Jason Ser, who asked that Sabol be released on a $200,000 bond, told Krause that Sabol spent a week in a psychiatric center receiving treatment after the riot.
Ser said the defendant is now stable and that his client plans to retain a private attorney.
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