Judge urged to keep Powell in jail
Prosecutors asked a federal judge Wednesday to reconsider a decision to release a former Butler County woman connected to the U.S. Capitol riot from jail while she awaits trial.
Rachel Marie Powell, 40, of Sandy Lake, Mercer County, was arrested at the FBI office in New Castle Thursday after she turned herself in. She was taken to the Butler County Prison.Jessica Smolar, of the U.S. Attorney's Office, asked U.S. District Court Magisterial Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania Lisa Pupo Lenihan to keep Powell incarcerated while she awaits trial. Smolar argued Tuesday that Powell was a danger to the community and was a flight risk. But Lenihan decided Tuesday that Powell could be released on house arrest with electronic monitoring.On Wednesday, Smolar asked the court to reconsider the decision, reasserting their claims that Powell was a danger.Powell faces charges of obstruction, depredation of government property, entering a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon, entering a restricted building or grounds and violent entry or disorderly conduct.In Smolar's appeal of Tuesday's decision, she writes that “there is no release condition or combination of release conditions that will reasonably assure the community's safety or the defendant's return to court. This court should order the defendant detained pending a trial.”Smolar also cites evidence that was presented during Tuesday's video hearing.“It is difficult to fathom a more serious danger to the community,” she said. “It bears repeating that the defendant was a leading participant in the most violent insurrection to occur at the U.S. Capitol in over 200 years.”Powell's lawyer, Michael Engle, argued during Tuesday's hearing that Powell is a mother of eight children, who need her, and she had never committed a crime before.Engle also claimed that the Butler County Prison was infested with the coronavirus, but Warden Joe DeMore said Wednesday that characterization was untrue, adding his count was a total of 11 inmates who had tested positive for the virus since the outbreak began last year. DeMore previously noted the jail's staff only tests inmates if they exhibit symptoms.Engle couldn't be reached for comment.
