Case against St. Joseph couple moves forward

Jun. 21—Kim and Steven Dragoo of St. Joseph surrendered to authorities Tuesday pursuant to federal charges filed against them on June 12, officials said.

The pair have since been released from custody, pending their next appearance in court set for Thursday before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. A spokesperson for the FBI in Kansas City said Wednesday that the Dragoos were "processed" after they self-surrendered on Tuesday. The conditions for their release pending trial haven't been specified.

The case pertains to the Dragoos' actions on Jan. 6, 2021, during a riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Then-President Donald Trump invited his supporters to the Capitol to protest what Trump asserted to be the "stolen" 2020 presidential election, won by President Joe Biden.

"It does not surprise me in the least that they're still doing prosecutions," said Troy Stabenow, a criminal defense attorney in Kansas City. "I won't be surprised if they're still doing prosecutions — or even starting prosecutions, you know — two years from now, as they walk down their priority list of cases. That doesn't mean a case now, or a year from now, is any stronger or weaker than a case they first brought."

Stabenow, who works with the Office of the Federal Public Defender of the Western District of Missouri, spoke about the general legal implications of this matter. Stabenow said he has no knowledge specific to the Dragoos, only the law that may hypothetically apply.

As specified in a criminal complaint signed by Upadhyaya, the Dragoos each face four misdemeanor allegations, specified as:

— Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds,

— Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds,

— Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building or Grounds, and

— Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building.

Stabenow said that it is all but impossible to know what kind of sentencing guideline will apply to any given federal criminal case at this stage. Federal prosecutions take at least six to nine months, or longer, even if the defendant decides "I'm just going to take my lumps" and plead guilty to every charge.

Should a conviction ensue in a given federal case, both federal prosecutors and defense counsel will file a sentencing memo, which specifies the defendant's crimes, background, anything that reflects well on them (or poorly) and what the law indicates ought to be the sentence. That is a starting point for the sentencing process.

"You can't just look at the statute to have any sort of real sense of what they're going to be looking at," in terms of time in prison or other penalties, Stabenow said.

Bruce Castor Jr., a Pennsylvania attorney for the Dragoos who also represented Trump in his second impeachment trial of February 2021, did not respond to a request for comment on the Tuesday developments involving his clients.

Marcus Clem can be reached at marcus.clem@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowClem