One of the men arrested after participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol alleged that the prison guards subjected him and others to “mental torture.”
Ronald Sandlin was arrested on Jan. 29 and charged with assaulting an officer, as well as many of the same nonviolent charges most rioters face. During a bail hearing on Tuesday, he spoke out against the guards’ alleged behavior, according to Politico.
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Sandlin told Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey that he was afraid for his safety after he claimed that another rioter was beaten by guards. He alleged Ryan Samsel, another person arrested in connection to the riot, “was severely beaten by correctional officers, [is now] blind in one eye, has a skull fracture and detached retina.”
The judge did not issue a direct response, but he scheduled a further hearing set for Thursday.
“I have seen Ryan. He has two black eyes to this day, two weeks later. All the skin is ripped off both wrists, which shows the zip ties and how tight they were,” Samsel’s lawyer, Steven Metcalf, said. “Other inmates said his face looked like a tomato that was stomped on.”
“We intend on filing a lawsuit against the two specific guards and the facility responsible for this scenario because Ryan Samsel did not deserve to get targeted and treated like this,” he added.
Sandlin, during his hearing, also claimed that officers tackled Richard Barnett, the man who gained notoriety for putting his boot up on the desk in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, “to the ground.”
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Both the District of Columbia Department of Corrections and the FBI’s Washington Field Office said they were aware of the allegation, but they did not provide specific details.
The FBI has apprehended more than 300 people in connection to the violence that occurred at the Capitol earlier this year, 65 of which were charged for assaulting officers.
