Defendant Lashes Out From Witness Stand During Proud Boys Trial

[Zorro]

Source: New York Times

Dominic Pezzola, who has been indicted on charges of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, attacked prosecutors for bringing “fake charges” against him.

A defendant in the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy case lashed out at prosecutors from the witness stand on Thursday, attacking them for conducting what he described as a “corrupt trial” marred by “fake charges.”

The outburst by the defendant, Dominic Pezzola, came during testimony that was meant to humanize him for the jury but seemed instead to expose his combative nature. In a tense back-and-forth with a prosecutor, Mr. Pezzola — who was among the first rioters to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — also sought to play down the violence of that day, saying that the crowd that forced its way into the building was not “an invading force,” but merely “trespassing protesters.”

The angry testimony emerged as the trial — now in its fourth month in Federal District Court in Washington — was finally winding down. Each of the defendants rested as the day came to an end on Thursday. Closing arguments could begin as early as Friday.

A former Marine and a veteran boxer, Mr. Pezzola first took the witness stand on Tuesday, telling the jury that he wanted to testify — always a risky gamble — “to take responsibility for my actions on Jan. 6.”

He quickly fell on his sword, insisting that any acts of violence he took part in that day, he committed on his own and that his co-defendants — Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl — “should not be roped into” his “actions.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/us/politics/proud-boys-jan-6-trial-pezzola.html

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Now that's the MAGA way to impress the jury...

[Deuxcents]

1. I'm not buying it.

[oasis]

2. Every one of you traitors are going down. Deal with it Dom

[The Grand Illuminist]

19. Not everyone.

Vast majority will be statute out. Plus if it is constitutional treason (for which it is), they would face the death penalty.

[The Roux Comes First]

3. Now THAT Is a Serious Insult to Weasels Wherever They May Be!

Most of the ones I have known at least take responsibility for their crimes.

[lastlib]

4. FAFO how "fake" the charges are, dipshit.

yeah, you, Pissola. You're goin' down, and it's gonna be hard time. I don't care if you ever come out, either.

[H2O Man]

5. Nope.

Last edited Fri Apr 21, 2023, 12:18 PM - Edit history (1)

He may have boxed in some "club" fights, but there is zero evidence he boxed in the amateirs (re: USA Boxing), much less the pros. My son would render him unconscious in under 30 seconds. He might last to a decision against my daughter.

[Lifeafter70]

7. Now that gave me a laugh

Especially your daughter

[H2O Man]

16. Twelve years ago,

in a public setting, legendary trainer Manny Steward approached my daughters & I to invite my son to his training camp. While he was talking with the older daughter, an old guy who had apparently boxed but was currently battling alcoholism kept trying to butt in. He asked why Manny was "wasting time talking to a girl," saying she didn't know anything about Manny's fighters. My daughter had a wee little grin tugging on her face when she went through a substantial list of his fighters. Manny told the guy to get lost, then borrowed my daughter's cell phone to call my boy.

Thus, I'll venture she knows much more of boxing history than this fool from the OP. She fought out of Boston, and never lost a fight. I don't think she ever lost a round.

[Lifeafter70]

20. Nice

Love your post btw

[mopinko]

8. too many blows to the head?

[H2O Man]

17. Too many lies

spilling out of his mouth. Reminds me of years ago, when three guys came to our gym. The "leader" of the three informed us that he was the amateur "heavyweight champion of Tennessee." We held back laughter, since we knew tat John Tate -- who would go on to hold part of the professional heavyweight title -- was indeed the current amateur champion in that state.

In sparring, the guy exposed himself as a cowardly ass clown, incapable of even light competition for a full round. And after checking the following day, we found he had no amateur fights in Tennessee. None. Except possibly in his imagination.

Easy to lie about such things. Even easier to expose those lies!

[mopinko]

21. on a serious note,

i heard an author on fresh air several years ago who had written a book proposing that the justice system needs to adjust to what we now know about neurobiology. we both know that there are conditions that do not fit the legal definition of not responsible for actions, but where the person definitely is not in control. i’ve tried to find it to no avail.

besides tbi’s and things like brain tumors, which cant result in great violence, he pointed to common medications that can alter people’s perceptions to the point that they make stupid decisions. he pointed to a case of a woman who was prescribed prednisone and became a gambling addict. lost her savings, her home and her hubs. tried to use diminished capacity in bankruptcy court, i think. dont recall the outcome. the thing is, this took a few years and the doc never made the slightest note of it.

in cook co, juveniles charged w violent crime can now get a brain scan. i’m not sure how easily, and it ought to be routine. you know that many kids who end up in county come from homes where beatings are the norm. have long thought head trauma was the main link.

[H2O Man]

22. Right.

I agree with you 100%. Brain chemistry -- including damage from head shots -- is a serious issue. And my late cousin, who was the head of neurology at Temple -- told me that children & youth are at high levels of risk for damage from getting punched in boxing, etc. Everything from that to even diet plays a role.

Hey, my son asked Big George Foreman to post encouragement to young people in Job Corp, where he got his start. And George did exactly that, after communicating with my boy!

[mopinko]

24. that's pretty cool.

maybe i should tweet at bill clinton to give a shout out to americorp. my son did the program after dropping out of hs and moping on my couch until his hair was as long as yours. absolutely turned him around. i still have his red jacket.
he had a strange path, and had been bullied. but he had a good heart, and it lit up doing the work.

[mopinko]

26. i've tried to convince a couple of state leges that i know

that they should add a line to the school health form asking about head injuries. if there’s a health factor that’s more important to success in school, i dont know what it is.
and it’s not about catching abusers. screening questions would be carefully phrased and ask more about things like headaches, or hallucinations, etc. neuroticks.
both my youngest and i had bad head injuries that caused trouble for years w/o detection. for both of us it was an illustration of the butterfly effect.

of course a kid w serious damage gets investigated. but there are plenty of innocent ways kids get hurt. i had a half doz concussions, none involving adults.

[H2O Man]

27. Right.

Another factor -- at least in my opinion -- is that young folk never believe it can happen to them. I base my theory that there is nothing on God's green earth as stupid and bull-headed as a teenaged male on experience. My brothers and I fought on lots of cards in upstate New York, and were friends with lots of other fighters. One named Frank Barry died right after a fight. On the ride home, I thought, "Poor Frank!" ...... but never connected it with my brother or I continueing to box. Many years later, my brother was reduced from the once bright guy we all knew, before dying from the damage from boxing. It was like Frank, but slow-motion.

[ChazInAz]

14. MY daughter would put him down.

I've seen her in the ring.
She's beautiful and scary.

[H2O Man]

18. Nice!

Does your daughter compete in the amatuers or pros?

Neither my son or daughter fight any more. But both train constantly. My son keeps dogging me to get him another fight, but he recently became a father, and that's more important. He won three (upstate) NYS Golden Gloves titles -- light heavyweight, cruiserweight, and heavyweight -- so other than the pros, there's nothing to prove anyhow.

[ChazInAz]

23. Amateurs.

She got into martial arts towards the end of her marriage. I could guess why at the time. The training eventually came in handy, and she divorced the SOB.
Rachel's now in San Diego, head of her gym's boxing team. Lives with a very nice Hispanic guy...who treats her the way Magyar boyars should be treated!

[H2O Man]

25. Great!

I'm doing a presentation on the local boxing team from my hometown. As it was not a "school sport," it tends to be overlooked by area sports historians. But out of a small village, my brother produced the top club in upstate New York, that knocked the stuffing out of teams from the various upstate cities. And I found an article where he had started teaching girls boxing in the early 1970s.

After I stopped fighting, I was the team's co-trainer. I have trained amateur and pro fighters, though in recent times, only a few. Every amateur I've trained has won at least one Golden Gloves title, and the pro won every bout once I started to train him.

So since they were young, I taught my girls boxing, and other self-defense moves. It gives them confidence. My Boston daughter trains in the last boxing gym that my late friend Rubin visited. Both girls grew up thinking the Hurricane was their uncle!

[TomDaisy]

6. he can lash out from the "fake jail"

[UpInArms]

9. More here

https://archive.is/YXESb

It seemed at first as if all of the defendants might testify, but after several other defense witnesses — including some Proud Boys who were not charged in the case — struggled during cross-examination, the defense lawyers scaled back their ambitions, and only Mr. Pezzola and Mr. Rehl decided to take the stand.

Mr. Rehl testified for two days last week and two days this week, telling the jury that even though he was a leader with the Proud Boys — he once ran the group’s Philadelphia chapter — he was unaware of any plans to storm the Capitol or to disrupt the certification of the election.
His lawyer, Carmen Hernandez, also sought to portray him as the least aggressive of the five defendants, getting him to testify repeatedly that he never broke anything or hurt anyone during the riot. The gambit seemed to work, at least until Mr. Rehl reacted testily to a newly found video the government played for the jury that showed someone who resembled him apparently shooting some sort of spray at the police.

[boyedav1969]

10. I'm not an attorney, let alone

a seasoned criminal defense attorney, but I often question the relative logic of letting these people testify on their own behalf. It's a risk-to-reward gambit, and many of these defendants have already shown a grave inadequacy to gauge that outside their MAGA bubble. They're too used to the affirmation of speaking to an echo chamber of their like-minded cohorts, and then they get on the stand and somehow still thank that's gonna play, or at least think they can outsmart a jury/prosecutor or talk their way out of it.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

28. Attorneys have no choice about it, really

Most criminals are quite stupid, and thus are prone to doing stupid things against the advice of their lawyers, like testifying in court, rather than keeping their fool mouths shut. I'm sure most attorneys get used to this, and always prep for a client to insist on testifying in court at some point. Because if they want to do it, the attorney either has to go along--or quit.

You have to remember who's working for whom: It seems like the attorney is in charge of everything, but they're not. They're employees of the clients. Not the boss.

So if a client gets it in his fool head to testify, the attorney can advise against it--but only advise. If the client insists on it, anyway, all the attorney can do at that point is get on top of how to present the testimony, to contain any potential damage.

[Grins]

11. If you missed it - this is Pezzola that day

His home was searched and manuals and materials for making bombs were found. Just the common stuff we have around the house, amiright?

[Kid Berwyn]

13. Busy guy that day.

Wonder how he knew which window to whack?

[AllaN01Bear]

12. ehhhh sheddup.

[Ray Bruns]

15. The first thing you do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.

A lesson many of these guys haven’t learned.