A Pennsylvania man who was arrested for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 was “viciously and savagely” beaten by a guard in a Washington D.C. jail and may lose sight in one eye because of the incident, his lawyer said.
According to CBS News, Ryan Samsel’s defense attorney Elisabeth Pasqualini said in an interview that Samsel was “viciously and savagely” beaten by a corrections officer in the D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility after the guard zip-tied Samsel’s hands.
“He has definitely suffered serious injuries, including a shattered orbital floor, a broken orbital bone, his jaw was broken, his nose was broken,” Pasqualini said, adding that Samsel is currently unable to see out of his right eye and may permanently lose vision in it.
“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,” said Steven Metcalf, Samsel’s other attorney told Politico on Tuesday. “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,” Metcalf added.
Samsel is accused of pushing over barriers and knocking down a police officer – causing her to suffer a concussion.
His beating was first brought up by another inmate and fellow Capitol rioter Ronald Sandlin during a bail hearing conducted by video before U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich on Tuesday, according to Politico.
“Myself and others involved in the Jan. 6 incident are scared for their lives, not from each other but from correctional officers,” Sandlin said “I don’t understand how this is remotely acceptable,” he added, saying he was being subjected to “mental torture.”
Sandlin said guards tackled Richard Barnett, 60–the man seen with his foot on Nancy Pelosi’s desk–“to the ground” and Samsel, “was severely beaten by correctional officers, [is now] blind in one eye, has a skull fracture and detached retina.”
Sandlin also described racial tension between minority guards and the largely white defendants, some of whom have been publicly accused of membership in or association with white supremacist groups, Politico reports.
“There is a pattern of abuse and of targeting of the defendants who are being held pursuant to what happened on Jan. 6,” Joseph McBride, a defense lawyer for Barnett said. “It is targeted. It is ruthless. It is nonstop.”
All three men have been charge with a wide range of crimes stemming from the January 6 insurrection.
Sandlin has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, which include assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting. Samsel has been charged with forcibly assaulting or interfering with a federal agent, obstructing an official proceeding and obstructing an officer. Barnett was charged with entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and stealing public property.
