By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A federal judge on Wednesday held top officials at the Washington, D.C., Department of Corrections in civil contempt, after ruling they violated the civil rights of a U.S. Capitol riot defendant by impeding his access to medical care.
“It is more than just inept and bureaucratic shuffling of papers,” U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said.
“I find that the civil rights of the defendant have been abridged. I don’t know if it’s because he is a Jan. 6 defendant or not, but I find that this matter should be referred to the attorney general of the United States … for a civil rights investigation.”
Lamberth’s verbal order came during a court hearing on Wednesday, after the judge previously threatened to hold District of Columbia Department of Corrections Director Quincy Booth and Warden Wanda Patten in contempt for failing to turn over notes from a doctor for defendant Christopher Worrell.
Worrell, a self-proclaimed member of the far-right Proud Boys group, is facing numerous criminal charges for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, including assaulting police and civil disorder.
Worrell broke his hand in May. In June, an orthopedic surgeon at a nearby hospital recommended he have surgery to repair it.
Since then, however, Worrell has been unable to get the surgery because the Department of Corrections has not provided the doctor’s notes to the U.S. Marshals Service despite repeated requests.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
