US Marshals Have Not Released Bodycam Sought by Rep. Troy Nehls

U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis answers questions from Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) at a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, Feb. 14, 2024. Judiciary Committee/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

More than three weeks after Rep. Troy Nehls demanded the U.S. Marshals Service turn over body-worn-camera footage of a District of Columbia jail guard spraying mace at Ronald Colton McAbee in September 2022, Marshals have not complied.

During a Feb. 14 hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, Mr. Nehls (R-Texas) told Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis it would be his “personal mission” to make sure the bodycam footage is made public.

As of noon on March 8, no BWC footage had been provided to Mr. Nehls, his spokeswoman Emily Matthews told The Epoch Times in an email.

Ms. Matthews said Mr. Nehls’ office received an email from the Marshals Service on March 8 that said the agency was “waiting for confirmation” of the involvement of the Office of Inspector General (OIG). No further explanation was provided.

Because the Marshals Service is under the authority of the attorney general, the U.S. Department of Justice’s OIG would become involved in an investigation involving the Marshals. According to its website, the OIG’s mission “is to detect and deter waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct in the Department of Justice.”

One day after the pepper-spray incident, Sarah McAbee, Mr. McAbee’s wife, filed a report (pdf) with the OIG asking for an investigation. She said there has been no reply in the 18 months since.

Mr. McAbee, 30, of Unionville, Tennessee, was sentenced on Feb. 29 to 70 months in prison for conviction on seven Jan. 6 criminal charges, including assault of two Metropolitan Police Department officers. He has appealed his conviction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Mr. McAbee has since been moved out of D.C. and placed in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

During the public hearing, Mr. Nehls asked Mr. Davis for a commitment to turn over the video.

“So can I get a commitment from you that we’re going to look into this, I have your assurance and we’re going to look into this? [I'll] get this video footage because if not, go to DOJ, I don’t care, I have to go to whoever,” Mr. Nehls said. “Because I think we have a problem here. And it seems like it’s being covered up.”

Mr. Davis replied, “I will commit my team to work with yours to see how we can be responsive to your request.”

The Epoch Times asked the U.S. Marshals Service and the Department of Justice for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

The U.S. Marshals Service is responsible for detainees being held for trial on federal charges.

On Feb. 29, after two weeks of waiting for the video, Mr. Nehls said he was prepared to use Congress’s subpoena power if necessary.

“My mission remains the same—if this footage is not turned over, I will approach my colleague, Congressman Jim Jordan, to get a subpoena,” Mr. Nehls told The Epoch Times in a statement. “Every detainee deserves to be treated humanely and receive due process.”

Mr. Jordan (R-Ohio) is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Mr. Nehls is a member of the committee.

Pepper Spray to the Face

At about 9:45 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2022, Mr. McAbee, who at the time had not yet faced trial, was walking toward a medical cart in the pod that houses Jan. 6 detainees and inmates.

Lt. Crystal Lancaster—who was suspended after the incident and has since been fired—shouted at Mr. McAbee to put on a COVID-19 mask, witnesses said. He did not comply and kept walking to retrieve his medication from the cart.

U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) questions the director of the U.S. Marshals Service about the 2022 assault of Jan. 6 detainee Ronald Colton McAbee (pictured at rear) during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 14, 2024. Emily Matthews/U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls

According to eyewitness accounts, after Mr. McAbee took his medication, Ms. Lancaster sprayed him with oleoresin capsicum (OC)—a harsh chemical irritant sometimes referred to as pepper spray or pepper gel.

As he was writhing on the floor in pain, Mr. McAbee’s hands were cuffed behind his back by a jail guard. Ms. Lancaster then fired a second blast of OC spray into Mr. McAbee’s face at point-blank range, several witnesses said.

“I was told by a U.S. Marshal that there was no way that they could sweep this investigation under the rug because of how severe it was,” Ms. McAbee told The Epoch Times in an interview.

An outside investigator was appointed to examine the incident, she said she was told in the fall of 2022.

“Give us the findings now it’s done. I mean, we’re 18 months into this,” Ms. McAbee said. “Hand it over. If you don’t want to hand it over to us, you should hand it over to Congress.”

Mr. Nehls, a former sheriff in Fort Bend County, Texas, said there is a use-of-force continuum that governs interactions between guards and detainees or inmates.

“If he wasn’t being physically aggressive, there was no reason for her to deploy that chemical,” he said. “And they could have a civil rights violation.”

When Mr. McAbee was sentenced to nearly six years in prison on Jan. 6 charges, federal prosecutors laid the blame on him for getting sprayed in the face.

Shifting the Blame

Prosecutors wrote that Mr. McAbee “pushed past an officer, making contact,” then disregarded instructions to return to his cell.

“After being sprayed with a chemical agent, he ‘became irate and began yelling obscenities at the officer,’ refused to be restrained, and ‘began yelling and screaming in [another] officer’s face in an aggressive manner,’” prosecutors wrote in a 53-page sentencing memo (pdf). “When a third officer attempted to restrain him, McAbee kicked at the officer.”

Ms. McAbee said that account isn’t accurate.

Ronald Colton McAbee was a sheriff's deputy in Williamson County, Tenn., until shortly after Jan. 6, 2021. Courtesy of Sarah McAbee

“They absolutely blame him and they blatantly lied,” she said. “There was not a third officer involved. It was two officers. It was Lancaster and the pod officer who handcuffed him. His name is Winston. That’s the only officers that were involved, yet they said that he tried to hit a third officer while they were handcuffed.”

Ms. McAbee said the DOJ’s new written claims make it even more important to obtain the bodycam video.

“I think it should be a priority,” she said. “That [incident] had nothing to do with January 6. He was the victim in that case and yet again, they take him and paint him to be some kind of monster that he’s not.”

On the day Mr. McAbee was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Mr. Nehls said he was concerned that the 12.5-year prison sentence sought by prosecutors could be “potential retaliation.”

“After I went on record regarding this incident, the prosecution is now recommending harsh sentencing for Mr. McAbee,” Mr. Nehls told The Epoch Times. “Despite having connected the day of receiving this commitment, the USMS staff has not provided me or my team with an update regarding the footage.”