Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Records: Ex-cop led local Proud Boys
After his arrest in the U.S. Capitol riot, former Windermere police Officer Kevin Tuck told federal agents his son, former Apopka police Officer Nathaniel Tuck, was vice president of a local chapter of the far-right Proud Boys group, according to a redacted report released Wednesday.
The elder Tuck also identified an “incriminating photograph” of his son and told agents they were both seen in Washington D.C. in the month before the insurrection in “Proud Boys clothing,” wrote Santha Sonenberg, an attorney appointed to examine potential conflicts in defense attorney John Pierce’s representing both Tucks and another co-defendant.
Federal prosecutors told Sonenberg that if one of Pierce’s three clients chose to cooperate or engage in plea negotiations, it could “work to the detriment of Mr. Pierce’s remaining two clients and thus create a conflict,” the 27-page report said.
Pierce, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, told a federal judge at a Tuesday hearing he intended to withdraw from the Tucks’ case and allow a new attorney to represent the father-son duo.
The Tucks face a slew of charges in the Jan. 6, 2021, attempted insurrection alongside Arthur Jackman, a vice president of the Orlando chapter of the Proud Boys who is married to an Orange County deputy sheriff. Two other Florida men, Paul Rae and Edward George Jr., are charged in the same case. All five have pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors had not confirmed Nathaniel Tuck’s membership in the extremist group, though reports from other media outlets noted his affiliation with the Proud Boys.
The Apopka Police Department said after his arrest that Nathaniel Tuck was a full-time officer with the agency from March 2018 to August 2020, then served as a reserve officer until that September.
In her report, Sonenberg said the government told her Pierce’s clients, including the Tucks and Rae, have “stronger or weaker connections” to defendants in other cases but, in particular, prosecutors noted Nathaniel Tuck’s connections to Joseph Biggs.
Biggs, an Ormond Beach organizer for the Proud Boys, is accused of helping plot and lead the attack.
Sonenberg said she identified several potential conflicts with Pierce jointly representing all three men in plea offers and at trial.
“One or more of his clients might testify and, in service to one, Mr. Pierce would be forced to cross-examine another he represents,” she wrote. “A third stage that could present a conflict is at sentencing where, to zealously advocate on behalf of one client, Mr. Pierce might have to argue another client he represents is more culpable.”
Prosecutors told Sonenberg they foresee a possible argument where Nathaniel Tuck could use his father’s status as a police officer as a defense, the report said.
“Nathaniel Tuck could argue that relying on his father, he had followed him into the United States Capitol,” she said.
Kevin Tuck made implicating statements not only about his son but also Rae, the report said. The elder Tuck admitted to federal agents he met with Rae several times and told them Rae had been with a group of people who gathered on Jan. 5, 2021, in the Washington D.C. area, Sonenberg wrote.
“Nathaniel Tuck did not make any post-arrest statements to law enforcement and Paul Rae’s post-arrest statements did not incriminate anyone but himself,” Sonenberg said in her report.
Prosecutors also told the conflicts attorney there was evidence of potentially relevant communication sent before and after Jan. 6, 2021, that only involved one of Pierce’s clients.
“[Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Veatch] stated that in Nathaniel Tuck’s and Kevin Tuck’s iCloud accounts there are ‘volumes of communication’ with their family regarding their motives that would be relevant to the charged offenses as evidence of their ‘vitriolic, intense, and passionate state of mind to upset the election,’ ” the report said.
The prosecutor also told Sonenberg there was potential evidence of “anti-Semitism and racism” involving one of Pierce’s clients that the other two “may not wish to be associated” with, according to the report.
Kevin Tuck has posted incendiary videos on YouTube in the past, spouting contempt for the Republican party and the federal agencies investigating those arrested in the riot.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered all parties to respond to the report by May 12.