Two former Polk County residents facing charges related to the U.S. Capitol attack have asked a judge to move their scheduled trials away from Washington, D.C.
Jonathan Pollock and Joseph Hutchinson III both submitted requests to U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols. They and Pollock’s older sister, Olivia Pollock , are scheduled for trials beginning Oct. 15 in federal court.
The three face a combined 26 counts on such charges as civil disorder, assaulting police officers and disruptive or disorderly conduct in a restricted building or grounds.
Hutchinson, who is representing himself, submitted a two-page motion handwritten on legal paper on Sept. 26. He described the venue of Washington, D.C., as “hostile” and “prejudiced.”
In unedited form, Hutchinson wrote: “Due to the centralized media coverage that has created vivid images in the minds of the residents of D.C. and the one sided media coverage of the events here, they have effectively created a presumed guilt over all those individuals associated with the events of Jan. 6th, especially concerning the charge of civil disorder that alleges the actions of others are extend to me.”
Hutchinson asked Nichols to move the trial to Virginia, noting that presidential voting in that state was more evenly mixed, while D.C. residents voted heavily for President Joe Biden. Hutchinson compared his plight in a D.C. courtroom to that of someone accused of robbing a convenience store facing a jury that consisted of the alleged victims.
Pollock’s lawyer, Carmen D Hernandez of Highland, Maryland, filed a motion Tuesday seeking a change of trial venue. Hernandez wrote that the move is necessary “to afford him (Pollock) a fair trial judged by an impartial jury who do not feel personally aggrieved and do not harbor significant prejudice against persons who participated in the political demonstrations on January 6, 2021.”
The motion cited the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
The eighth defendant Winter Haven man is 8th from Polk County arrested on charges related to Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot
Hernandez quoted from members of jury pools in trials of other Jan. 6 defendants, who allegedly expressed criticisms of former President Donald Trump and described his supporters as “traitors” and “white supremacists.”
“In counsel’s experience, DC juries express much less bias, even in cases where murder, gang or violent gang racketeering conspiracies and members of foreign drug cartels are charged,” Hernandez wrote.
Among hundreds of Jan. 6 cases, only “a handful” of defendants have been acquitted by juries in Washington, D.C., the lawyer wrote. She asserted that a memorandum from Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, could prejudice jurors.
Hutchinson also submitted a “Brady motion,” requesting all exculpatory evidence from the prosecution. The handwritten motion mentions video from cameras at the U.S. Capitol and from cameras worn by police officers.
Hutchinson also requested “all interviews of those in the crowd and those of police if they did any after action incident reports, all footage of police brutality or misconduct that transpired that day, the identities of all informants, plain clothed officers, FBI, CIA, that were in the crowd, their communications, reports, videos and testimonies from that day in the 4 th and 5 th.”
Separately, Nichols denied a series of motions made by Jonathan Pollock to dismiss certain counts and to dismiss the case over his claims of selective enforcement of the law in violation of the First Amendment and on free speech grounds.
A status hearing was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Pair of Jan. 6 defendants from Polk County seek to have trials moved out of DC
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