Judge asks why jail placed suspect in White House correspondents dinner attack on suicide watch
Source: Associated Press
This courtroom sketch depicts Cole Tomas Allen, center, listening as his attorney Eugene Ohm, left, speaks to U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, Monday, May 4, 2026, in Washington, as Tony Towns, the acting general counsel for the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, listens at right.
WASHINGTON (AP) A federal magistrate judge on Monday pressed a jail official to explain why a man charged with trying to storm the White House Correspondents' Association dinner and attempting to kill President Donald Trump was placed on restrictive suicide watch after his arrest.
Officials at the city jail in Washington, D.C., removed Cole Tomas Allen from its designated "suicide status" over the weekend after his attorneys complained that he had been unnecessarily confined in a padded room with constant lighting, repeatedly strip searched and placed in restraints outside his cell.
But the relaxed conditions didn't satisfy U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui's concerns that Allen may have received disparate, punitive treatment in violation of his due process rights. Faruqui noted that the D.C. jail routinely houses convicted killers and others charged with violent crimes without placing them on 24-hour lockdown.
"It could drive a person crazy to be in that situation," he said.
Allen's lawyers said he wasn't showing any suicidal risk factors after his arrest. But a jail psychiatrist evaluated him and initially concluded that he posed a suicide risk, according to Tony Towns, acting general counsel for the city's corrections department.
Read more: https://tribtown.com/2026/05/04/judge-asks-why-jail-placed-suspect-in-white-house-correspondents-dinner-attack-on-suicide-watch/
sop
(19,413 posts)bluestarone
(22,468 posts)The MORE PAIN they can cause, is what they love.
The judge said even J6 defendents weren't treat this way
Judge Zia M. Faruqui said hes handled scores of cases involving defendants who took to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and Allens allegations of treatment including being fully restrained by a five-point shackling system were worse than how those defendants were treated.
Pardons may erase convictions, but they do not erase history, Faruqui said during Mondays hearing, taking a shot at Trumps mass pardon of those involved in the January 6 attack.
Faruqui is known for his advocacy of defendants civil rights.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/04/politics/cole-allen-gunman-jail-conditions-january-6
erronis
(24,591 posts)He won't be able to tell his story anymore.
travelingthrulife
(5,625 posts)Prairie Gates
(8,486 posts)no_hypocrisy
(55,454 posts)usonian
(26,653 posts)DON'T TELL THE SUSPECT.
MichMan
(17,430 posts)usonian
(26,653 posts)it's to give him time to "write a confession" like Epstein "did".
I can probably guess that one pretty accurately.

This time, probably implicating Joe Biden, George Soros, Barack Obama (especially Barack Obaxma), Kamala Harris, Jimmy Kimmel, MTG, and fluoridated water.
But seriously, one never knows why a person is killed on the spot (Like Oswald) and not. People who "know too much" do not fare well.
They missed five times...
travelingthrulife
(5,625 posts)MichMan
(17,430 posts)Why give him the opportunity to testify about how the whole thing was staged?
chouchou
(3,338 posts)"Excuse me boss...Bob and I feel very, very sick..we'll be back in a few hours..."
tavernier
(14,524 posts)Polybius
(22,144 posts)Reading that made me miss The Magistrate.
niyad
(134,151 posts)chowder66
(12,540 posts)niyad
(134,151 posts)chowder66
(12,540 posts)to do these kind of acts.
I don't 'get' what takes them to those dark and barbaric places. These kinds of abusers seem to lurk at every institution predominantly run by the patriarchy. It sickens me every time I read about these acts of violation of other human beings.
niyad
(134,151 posts)We can use the words, the psychological explanations, but it is almost impossible to truly grasp what goes on in their heads. And you are absolutely correct about the connection with the patriarchy. It is all connected.
I think about criminal profilers, and what it must be like getting into the minds of the truly sick and evil criminal types. I cannot even imagine what it is like diving into those cesspools.
chowder66
(12,540 posts)I can't imagine doing that for a job either but I am grateful to those that do. I would need 8 hours of cute animal videos every day of the week to cleanse my brain. Hell, I would need to become a baby goat.
Multichromatic
(217 posts)chowder66
(12,540 posts)It's dark. It's sickening. It's brain-shatteringly disgusting. All of it, every abuse of other human beings.
magicarpet
(19,452 posts)... send it to the Office of the President for his viewing pleasures and entertainments when he gets bored with nothing better to do.
chowder66
(12,540 posts)I need to watch baby goats now.
republianmushroom
(22,774 posts)ashredux
(2,963 posts)
magicarpet
(19,452 posts)... write a convincing suicide note after his jailers off him. It would make his death seem so much more suicide-iey - instead of looking like a Mafioso hit.
America does have an obligation to protect and defend the facade of American Exceptionalism. After all America does not customarily murder our citizens before the due process afforded by our courts are extended.
At least we didn't before trDUMP leisurely wandered down his golden escalator then clawed and bullied his way into the political arenas. But those days of due process have become such a nuisance, so damn cumbersome, and so so old fashioned to contend with any longer.
This is a new day where Fascism reigns over our current political landscapes. It grows on you,... now so normalized it has become comforting and warming,... with out Fascism to guide us each and every step along the way - we would all be aimlessly wandering around and totally lost in a thick fog absent any destinations.
C Moon
(13,756 posts)JT45242
(4,149 posts)If he ends up staged as a post mortem hanging you need to prime the pump to get suicide believable
republianmushroom
(22,774 posts)DUH