A Washington D.C. judge is under fire by federal prosecutors as well as the country’s largest gun lobby for releasing an 18-year-old gunman with only an ankle monitor.
Earlier this month, Amonte Moody was arrested on allegations that he sprayed a neighborhood just a mile from the U.S. Capitol with more than two dozen rounds of ammunition using an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Metropolitan D.C. police records.
There were no reports of anyone injured.
According to a criminal complaint from the DOJ’s D.C. district, after emptying the AR-15, Mr. Moody dismantled it, fled the scene, and hid in a basement.
A police report provided to The Epoch Times alleges that Mr. Moody had at one point during the shooting targeted an SUV parked in an alleyway.
Federal prosecutors asked that Mr. Moody be remanded without bail pending trial. The charges against Mr. Moody are lengthy and include reckless endangerment; endangerment with a firearm; possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device; concealing an illegal firearm; illegal possession of a firearm; destruction of property, and tampering with physical evidence.
Instead, in a bench ruling at Mr. Moody’s bail hearing, Magistrate Judge Lloyd U. Nolan Jr., a former public defender, determined that Mr. Moody, in his words, “ is not a threat to the community” and released him under house arrest under the condition he wear an ankle monitor.
Prosecutors were incensed and asked for an emergency hearing on a motion to the court to reconsider Mr. Moody’s release. The emergency hearing is scheduled to take place on May 15.
“Despite the egregiousness of this conduct, the strength of the case, including video evidence depicting it and two identifications of the defendant as the shooter, and the statutory presumption in favor of detention pending trial, the Magistrate Judge released the defendant,” federal prosecutors wrote in its motion for the emergency hearing.
The prosecution also argued that it was not safe for Mr. Moody to be released on an ankle monitor, because the devices are not monitored 24 hours a day, but only during “business hours” and only during the week—not on weekends.
Judge Nolan made his ruling after Mr. Moody’s court-appointed attorney public defender, Kavya Naini, argued at his bail hearing that it would be in Mr. Moody’s best interest to be released so he could complete his high school diploma.
She also argued at Mr. Moody’s bail hearing that the 18-year-old had a supportive family that would help him comply with the terms of his house arrest.
Ms. Naini referred The Epoch Times to the Washington D.C. Public Defender Service’s Office of Public Affairs for comment, but the office never responded.
Judge Nolan’s office number listed on the court’s website was out of service as of 10 a.m. on May 14 and he could not be reached by email.
Backlash over his May 3 ruling has spread across social media with thousands posting comments expressing outrage over the judge’s decision.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) blasted Judge Nolan’s ruling in a May 13 letter entitled “District of Crime: Shocking Case Characteristic of D.C. Approach to Violence.”
The group added that people have “the right to be upset” when the federal government “uses its vast powers to target innocuous gun owners throughout the nation while refusing to adequately confront actual violent crime in their own enclave.”
Several media outlets reported comments that Judge Nolan allegedly posted on Facebook “boasting about being woke” and that he also pledged his support for Black Lives Matter on the social media platform and indicated that in 2020, he donated to a fundraiser for Gideon’s Promise, a George Soros-supported foundation.
According to a press release by the D.C. Court, Judge Nolan is a Massachusetts native and served as an intern for President Bill Clinton appointee Judge Russell Canan before being appointed to the bench in 2010. Judge Canan had been a long-time staff attorney for the Southern Prisoner’s Defense Committee before winning President Clinton’s nomination.
Before his appointment, Judge Nolan served as a public defender in Washington for 11 years and according to a more recent bio published by the D.C. Court, he serves “on multiple committees within the court” and has sat on every kind of court cases except for probate.In 2016, Judge Nolan was highlighted by his alma mater George Washington University School of Law during its celebration of Black History Month.
