Authorities Jail Man Who Participated in Capitol Riot and Tried to Flee to Switzerland

Last updated on April 17th, 2021 at 11:15 am

United States authorities have jailed a man who was caught on video beating police officers who attempted to help those who were injured during the Capitol riot, saying that his recent attempt to flee to Switzerland makes him a flight risk.

Jeffrey Sabol, a geophysicist who was indicted alongside four others who allegedly participated in the riot, has not entered a plea. In a 64-page ruling, Judge Emmet Sullivan said Sabol remains a flight risk and declined to release him from jail, where he is being held pre-trial.

“He stripped a vulnerable police officer of his police baton,” Sullivan wrote. “He then used that stolen police baton to force another officer away from his post and into a mob of rioters who proceeded to viciously attack him, leaving him bleeding from the head.”

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Court filings indicate that Sabol “reached a mental breaking point,” booked a flight from Colorado to Boston and then another to Switzerland, where he believed he would be protected from extradition.

Sabol “has admitted to law enforcement that he planned to ski while in Switzerland to make his trip ‘look natural,'” according to Judge Sullivan’s ruling.

“Considering the steps he took to flee to Switzerland to avoid arrest, Mr. Sabol is the epitome of a flight risk,” it continues. “The Court is unpersuaded by Mr. Sabol’s argument, made at the April 8 hearing, that he only wanted to go to Switzerland for a short time to give himself an opportunity to find video evidence to counter the videos that were being circulated by the media at the time.”

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.