Disenchantment common for rioters
Some at Capitol felt like they didn’t fit in
The letter was entered into the court record as part of a federal public defender’s bid to free a Champaign County woman from custody while facing charges for her role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Signing only his first name and the first initial of his last name, Zach H. pleads the case for his friend, Jessica Watkins, a 38-year-old woman identified by the FBI as a riot participant, member of the Oath Keepers, and selfproclaimed leader of an upstart local militia.
He addresses the letter “to those who will listen.”
Upon the letter’s filing last week in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, one excerpt drew most of the media attention:
“My friend is an idiot, and I have never been more angry or upset with her in my life, but I do not believe that she wanted to become a terrorist that day,” Zach H. wrote.
As investigators identify and charge more participants in the halfcocked insurrection at the Capitol, it grows clearer that Ohio was, pardon the expression, well-represented.
At least a dozen Ohio residents now face charges tied to the riot, with the latest filed on Tuesday against a Southeast Side man and a Powell man.
It can be tempting to describe many of these defendants as Watkins’ friend did, as vocal but ultimately bumbling rubes caught up in delusions of grandeur.
Some of the facts do fit nicely into that narrative. Another central Ohioan charged, Troy E. Faulkner, was roasted on social media for wearing to the riot a jacket emblazoned with the name and phone number of his Whitehall painting business.
“I don’t glorify what I did, nor am I proud of it,” Faulkner told the Ohio Capital Journal in a text exchange after he
was identified as a member of the mob.
Maybe he does feel truly penitent, but it is probably more likely that he just regrets wearing the jacket.
Their lawyers will apologize on their clients’ behalf and offer excuses, of course, but none fly very far considering those clients willingly inserted themselves into an insurrection that, as sloppy as it may have been, still resulted in several deaths, a host of injuries, shouted threats to execute the vice president of the United States, and feces smeared throughout the seat of our nation’s legislative branch of government.
But we don’t have to swallow any whoppers to find some of the threads tying these knuckleheads together.
Watkins was described by her friend as someone who never quite felt that she fit in, and by her attorney as a civicminded citizen who had been dealt a series of setbacks in life. She had been forced out of the U.S. Army for her sexual orientation, her lawyer said in court documents, and the COVID-19 pandemic had jeopardized her livelihood as a small-town bar owner. She was disillusioned.
“While some of the rhetoric she allegedly engaged in is troubling, she fell prey to the false and inflammatory claims of the former president, his supporters, and the right wing media,” Chief Assistant Federal Public Defender Michelle Peterson wrote in asking that Watkins be released to home confinement while her case is pending.
Another member of her two-bit militia, 50-year-old Donovan Crowl, accompanied her to D.C.
Crowl’s family told The New Yorker that he served in the Marines until health problems forced him into civilian life. He struggled with addiction, they told the magazine, and court records indicate that Crowl has had a history of arrests for drunken driving and domestic violence. His record looks much like that of Faulkner, who has repeated drunken-driving convictions, as well as convictions for misdemeanor domestic violence and felony carrying a concealed firearm.
Crowl’s family said his views grew extreme beginning in the Obama administration, although Crowl denied having racist views in an interview with the magazine’s Ronan Farrow.
“It’s stuff he heard from that psychopath Alex Jones and those echo chambers on the internet,” Crowl’s sister, Denissa Crowl, told Farrow. She called rural Ohio “ground zero” for far-right radicalization.
To Zach H., that is what happened to Watkins.
“I have to believe that Jess would have never participated in the attack on the 6th if she had not been so purposefully misguided by those who stood to wield her experience as a weapon against this country,” he wrote. “For lack of a better term, I believe my friend was brainwashed by those deeply entrenched in conspiratorial beliefs.”
That may be offered as an excuse, but it doesn’t have to be accepted as one. Rather it can be instructive to those of us here at ground zero, providing insights “to those who will listen.” tdecker@dispatch.com @Theodore_decker
The Beta chapter of Delta Tau Delta and the Phi chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternities at Ohio University are under investigation this month on suspicion of breaking the school's student code of conduct In early February, Ohio University was alerted of actions by the fraternities that may violate the student code of conduct, university spokeswoman Carly Leatherwood said.
Cease-and-desist letters sent to fraternity representatives by Taylor Tackett, OU'S assistant dean of students and director, informed members that they are not allowed to meet in any capacity — officially or unofficially — while the groups are under investigation.
According to the letter sent to Delta Tau Delta, fraternity members held an event the weekend of Feb. 5-7 at a residence on Mill Street in Athens, which raised concerns about violating health and safety orders due to the pandemic. Tackett asked for a list of attendees and their guests.
No specific details about what might have occurred was included in the cease-and-desist letter to Alpha Phi Alpha.
Leatherwood said OU will conduct a thorough investigation into the matters of both fraternities, and that the university could not provide additional details at this time. shendrix@dispatch.com @sheridan120
BLOOD DRIVES
The American Red Cross has an ongoing need for donors of all blood types.
Donors can call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or go to redcrossblood.org to schedule an appointment. Blood drives are open today at:
Carriage Place Blood Donation Center,
4820 Sawmill Rd., 7:15 a.m.-2:15 p.m.
Newman Center, 64 West Lane Ave., 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; 12:30-5 p.m.
Polaris Blood Donation Center, 1327
Cameron Ave., Oak Creek Building,
Lewis Center, 7:15 a.m.-2:15 p.m.
Stone Ridge Blood Donation Center, 337 Stoneridge Lane, Gahanna, 7:15 a.m.-2:15 p.m.