Oath Keepers attorney not competent to stand trial, DOJ and defense say

[Nevilledog]

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/national/capitol-riots/oath-keepers-attorney-deemed-not-competent-to-stand-trial-lawyers-say-kellye-sorelle-stewart-rhodes-militia-january-6-capitol-riot/65-70bcd4a6-a1ff-471e-bd96-97fec4ede855

Evaluators hired by the government and defense have determined the former general counsel for the Oath Keepers militia is not currently competent to stand trial, both her lawyer and a federal prosecutor said in court Thursday.

Kellye SoRelle, of Texas, was indicted in September on felony counts of conspiracy and obstruction for allegedly instructing members of the Oath Keepers to destroy evidence after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol Building. SoRelle, a lawyer and former Republican candidate for the Texas House of Representatives, was on the grounds of the Capitol with militia leader Stewart Rhodes but did not enter the building. She was also filmed taking part in a meeting between Rhodes, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and others in the garage of the Phoenix Hotel in D.C. on Jan. 5. Tarrio has claimed the meeting was about him seeking legal representation following his arrest a day earlier for burning a D.C. church's Black Lives Matter flag.

After the riot, the Justice Department says SoRelle passed along messages from Rhodes through the Oath Keepers' Telegram chats telling militia members to get ready to oppose the government by force. Prosecutors argued at trial in November that Rhodes used SoRelle's phone as a way to try to distance himself from messages he wrote instructing his militia members to destroy evidence — including one telling Oath Keepers to "DELETE your self-incriminating comments."

SoRelle was scheduled to begin a jury trial on July 10 with co-defendants Donovan Crowl and James Beeks. On Thursday, however, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Hughes and SoRelle’s public defender, Horatio Aldredge, told U.S. District Judge Mehta they had been informed by separate evaluators that SoRelle was not currently competent to stand trial. Hughes said the Justice Department expected to receive the full report back from their evaluator by the end of the week.

*snip*

I'm kinda shocked. In my 33 years of criminal defense it's always been very difficult to find a judge willing to rule someone incompetent to stand trial. It's a very high bar. I remember one client's mental illness that caused him to have almost constant auditory hallucinations. The Dr said it was okay because the voices weren't telling him to hurt other people.

[Midnight Writer]

1. If mental competence is the standard, none of them will go to prison.

[Chainfire]

2. So, it begs the question, is she still competent to practice law?

[Effete Snob]

4. She's been suspended from practice for quite a while now

[lindysalsagal]

3. Because no sane/competent lawyer would represent the idiots.

I hope it's the end of the group.

[TheRealNorth]

5. The RW militias groups are just rebranding

There was just an article about how the "Patriot Front" is growing and becoming more active.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/16/patriot-front-far-right-violence

[Effete Snob]

6. She still tweets

Her grasp of reality is pretty tenuous.

She was the one that Elmer "Lonesome Roads" Rhodes shacked up with after he left his abused spouse.

She's the one in back in this picture in the garage the night before:



She was co-counsel on the "Gondor has no king" case filed by that idiot insurance lawyer and co-insurrectionist Paul Davis in Texas just after the putsch.

I read a transcript of that hearing, and what's odd here is that she's not competent to stand trial - and both defense and prosecution independent evaluators made that determination - but she's apparently okay not to be institutionalized until she has been restored to competency. The judge had never seen a case where an incompetent was allowed to remain at large while being restored, and he puzzled over why she's allowed to run around loose.

But they are both supposed to submit further briefing so... who knows.

She's an odd one, though, as her Twitter stream suggests.

[Pepsidog]

9. Crazy eyes, dazed and confused like most republicans.

[Effete Snob]

10. Check out this one

She ran for state office with that picture.

[PlutosHeart]

13. Yikes!

Something is not right with these people.

[Pepsidog]

15. No hiding her true self there.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Too bad we cannot get more information.

Yes I wonder what the evaluators found during their examinations.

[hibbing]

8. Hates the government but has public defender...shrug n/t

[Tarc]

11. Bull-fucking-shit. What judge accepted this nonsense?

This clown is out and about actively tweeting and supporting her J6 agenda.

IF this is upheld, then she should be buried in the deepest, darkest psych ward to get the obvious care she needs to one day eventually stand trial. If she is allowed to be out and free because of this, that is a travesty.

[LAS14]

12. Apparently the DOJ concurred. nt

[ShazzieB]

14. There are some things we need to keep in mind here.

There is a ton we don't know, and none of us is even close to being in a position to evaluate the validity of the incompetency ruling or the decision not to institutionalize her.

Yes, it's highly unusual. Yes, it raises some questions. But we need to not assume we know more than we actually do.