'One of the weakest requests for detention I have seen' Judge releases DC lawyer, West Point grad

[LetMyPeopleVote]

A magistrate judge said it was "almost unthinkable" attorney Paul Bryant would be found to be a danger to the community.

Link to tweet

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/one-of-the-weakest-requests-for-detention-i-have-seen-judge-releases-dc-lawyer-west-point-grad-accused-of-threatening-national-guard-paul-bryant/65-f83a6c2b-afbd-49b5-814a-2e0a9f1ee064

WASHINGTON — A magistrate judge released a D.C. attorney and West Point graduate from jail Thursday, saying the government had “as close to zero” a chance as possible at demonstrating he was a danger to the community.

“This is perhaps one of the weakest requests for detention I have seen and something that, prior to two weeks ago, would have been unthinkable in this courthouse,” Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui said.

Faruqui ordered Paul Anthony Bryant, a Columbia Law School alum who deployed to Afghanistan as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves, released from the D.C. Jail on minimal conditions. Bryant will have to surrender any firearms but was not ordered to hand over his passport.

Bryant first appeared in federal court Wednesday afternoon and was ordered temporarily held by a different judge, Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey. Because of a flood of cases filed in district court as a result of President Donald Trump’s ongoing federal surge in D.C., Bryant had been looking at spending the long weekend in jail until a detention hearing could be scheduled on Tuesday. But, according to Faruqui, Harvey asked him to step in and hold a hearing Thursday morning after the Federal Public Defender’s Office filed a motion seeking an earlier date.

“He was concerned about detaining someone in a case that appears to be very weak,” Faruqui said.

Bryant was arrested Wednesday morning on a warrant out of D.C. District Court on charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding police, threating a federal official and threatening to kidnap or injure a person. His attorney said he had appeared in D.C. Superior Court on Monday but had been released.

[stopdiggin]

1. this is the man that appears to be in the midst of a mental health

crisis. Or, such is believed by others closer to the situation.
That does not preclude that the stop that landed him in jail - was without solid justification. Other hand - his behavior and speech - might well have ushered the way ...