On the one-year anniversary of the Capitol insurrection today, a Volusia County leader of the far-right group the Proud Boys continues his legal fight to be released while his case works its way through the federal court system.
Joseph R. Biggs will turn 38 on Saturday in the Seminole County Jail where he has been held without bond since he turned himself in on April 22. Before he was jailed, Biggs lived in unincorporated Volusia County near Ormond Beach.
No one answered the door at Biggs’ house on Wednesday.
Biggs’ attorney, John Daniel Hull, filed a notice on Dec. 27 that he was appealing U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly’s order on Dec. 14 denying Biggs’ request for bond.
Hull declined comment when reached by The News-Journal.
Previous coverage:Judge orders Volusia Proud Boy Joe Biggs jailed as case proceeds in Jan. 6 attack on Capitol
Related story:Lawyers for Volusia Proud Boys leader Joseph Biggs claim there’s no evidence to detain him
Read more:Volusia County Proud Boys leader threatened at Seminole County Jail, attorney says
The Proud Boys are a nationalist organization that describes itself as a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists,” according to a federal criminal complaint.
The group also strongly supported former President Donald Trump. In recent years, the group has increasingly confronted protesters on the left, including antifa, in places like Portland, Oregon, sometimes leading to street fights.
The Proud Boys, along with the Oath Keepers, were among groups being investigated by the federal government following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
A status conference for Biggs is set for Jan. 11 before Judge Kelly.
Capitol riot arrests: See who’s been charged across the U.S.
Biggs and three other Proud Boys members, Ethan “Rufio Panman” Nordean of Auburn, Washington, Charles Donohoe of Kenersville, North Carolina, and Zachary Rehl of Philadelphia, have been indicted on six counts: conspiracy; obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting; obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and aiding and abetting; destruction of government property and aiding and abetting; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; and disorderly conduct in a restricted building or grounds.
While other Proud Boys have been indicted in the Jan. 6 riot, the cases of Biggs, Nordean, Donohoe and Rehl are moving along together in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C.
The judge ordered on Dec. 14 that Biggs and the other three remain jailed.
During a hearing in April when Judge Kelly initially ordered that Biggs and Nordean be detained, the judge cited the seriousness of the charges against them related to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“In other words, the defendants stand charged with seeking to steal one of the crown jewels of our country, in a sense, by interfering with the peaceful transfer of power,” Kelly said. “I won’t belabor the point but it’s no exaggeration to say that the rule of law, the durability of our constitutional order and, in the end, the very existence of our republic is threatened by such conduct.”
Prosecutors have argued that Biggs and Nordean were leaders and organizers who had many followers and thus posed a particular danger to the community.
Biggs’ appealed the judge’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the appeals court upheld the judge’s decision.
Now that the judge has again denied Biggs’ request to be released pending the outcome of his case, his attorney is again appealing. Legal arguments are due in the appeal by Feb. 10.
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