A St. Thomas-based lawyer practicing in District Court is on his way to Washington, D.C., to serve a client accused of taking part in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.
Details contained in a motion filed with District Court on St. Thomas lay out the scheduling demands facing one of the federal public defenders who is also handling two high-profile cases here at home.
Federal Public Defender Matthew Campbell is one of several lawyers serving the U.S. government — prosecutors, civil litigation lawyers, and public defenders — who offered to help represent hundreds of persons arrested and charged in connection with the uprising.
“Lawyers from U.S. attorney’s offices as far flung as Alaska and Puerto Rico are involved in prosecuting more than half of the cases in D.C. federal court,” said an article appearing on the Law360 website. Federal public defenders and those who could serve in that capacity were also sought to represent about one-third of the defendants, saying they lacked the funds to hire private attorneys.
One of the duties of government lawyers serving on Jan. 6 cases is to travel to the jurisdictions where their cases are being heard.
Campbell declined comment when asked by the Source to confirm his involvement with Jan. 6 cases. But contained in a motion filed in the case of the high school track coach accused of sexually assaulting students, Campbell cited his Jan. 6 commitments as reasons to delay the sentencing of Alfredo Bruce Smith.
“From Sunday Jan. 7 to Tuesday Jan. 9, 2024, undersigned counsel will be in Washington, D.C. for pretrial hearings in United States v. John Richter … “ Campbell said. Also listed were other January 2024 appearance dates leading up to Richter’s scheduled trial between Jan. 22 and Jan. 26.
For those and other reasons, Smith’s public defender asked — and got — permission from District Court to delay sentencing from Feb. 9 to March 26.
Richter is accused of being one of several persons who climbed into the Capitol building through a smashed window to disrupt certification of the 2020 presidential election. Prosecuting the case took a turn when investigators found out the accused had the same name as a White House staffer serving under President Joe Biden.
Back home on St. Thomas, Campbell is also representing Richardson Dangleben Jr., accused of fatally shooting Police Detective Deberth Phipps Jr. on July 4. Originally scheduled for a Dec. 11 trial date, the Dangleben case was declared a complex litigation on Nov. 23. That allowed the court to move the scheduled Dec. 11 trial date to Oct. 28, 2024.
