Judge denies release of KC-area Proud Boy who wielded ax handle at Capitol riot

Olathe Proud Boy William “Billy” Chrestman will remain in jail pending trial on charges related to his alleged involvement in the Capitol insurrection, a federal judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly denied Chrestman’s request to be released from custody, upholding a previous judge’s ruling that he was a danger to the community. The Olathe man has been incarcerated since federal agents arrested him on Feb 11.

Kelly went through a laundry list of Chrestman’s alleged actions on the day of the riot that the judge said were captured by dozens of photos and videos. The actions, Kelly said, included Chrestman wielding an ax handle, encouraging the crowd to storm the Capitol and confronting law enforcement, telling an officer that “You shoot and I’ll take your f------ ass out!”

“In a world in which January 6 has passed but yet the notion in our politics that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and is still a live issue, those statements do not reflect someone for whom the fight is over...they reflect someone who is focused on the future and for whom the fight continues,” Kelly said.

The judge also said Chrestman’s actions after the riot indicated that he showed no remorse and that he took steps to obstruct evidence. When authorities later searched his home, Kelly said, they didn’t find the tactical gear, gas mask or ax handle that Chrestman was seen with on Jan. 6, nor did they find a rifle that was pictured on Chrestman’s social media posts. And his cellphone was found hidden in a dresser drawer in his young daughter’s room.

“Mr. Chrestman was much more — much, much more — than someone who merely cheered on the violence or who entered the Capitol after others cleared the way,” Kelly said.

The ruling came after Chrestman and five others accused of being part of a Kansas City-based group of Proud Boys who conspired to storm the Capitol made appearances in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week via video and telephone.

The Proud Boys have been at the forefront of the federal investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection. Authorities have arrested more than two dozen Proud Boys from around the country, including several in leadership positions, on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to conspiracy to assaulting a federal officer.

Chrestman was indicted Feb. 26 along with Christopher Kuehne of Olathe, Louis Enrique Colon of Blue Springs, Ryan Keith Ashlock of Gardner and siblings Cory and Felicia Konold of Arizona on conspiracy charges and other offenses related to the riot.

Chrestman, an unemployed union sheet metal worker, also was charged with threatening to assault a federal law enforcement officer and carrying a wooden ax handle while in the Capitol building and on the grounds.

All except Chrestman were released on a personal recognizance bond pending trial. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., in February reversed a Kansas judge’s decision to release Chrestman and ordered him to be held without bond until his trial. Prosecutors allege that Chrestman was a key player in the riot.

At last week’s hearing, a federal prosecutor strongly argued against Chrestman’s release.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christoper Berridge referred to a transcript of a self-recorded phone call prosecutors said Chrestman made shortly after storming the Capitol in which he described the riot and said, “I started a revolution.” The government included the transcript in its motion opposing Chrestman’s release.

According to the transcript, Chrestman also said that “we stormed the Capitol Building, we rushed that s---, we took that house back,” adding, “me and two others, we were first ones through the gate.”

“This is a recorded call that Mr. Chrestman himself recorded after the incident, talking about how he and people there were the first ones through the gate; they led everybody,” Berridge told the judge. “So we’re talking about Mr. Chrestman admitting in his own way that he was an essential figure and actually leading the attack on the Capitol.”

Berridge said Chrestman remained a threat to the community.

“This is something that is still in the Zeitgeist, still very much in media and circled out in the public, this idea that this election was fraudulent or stolen,” Berridge said. He added that there was even more evidence now to suggest that Chrestman was a “threat to the public moving forward, is still a danger to the community.”

“And I will just point out, too,” Berridge said, “that Mr. Chrestman actually was there and had an ax handle, was actually threatening law enforcement.”

But Chrestman’s attorney, Peter Cooper, argued that the Army veteran posed no safety risk and said prosecutors had no proof that he was part of any organized effort to breach the Capitol.

“There is no evidence that Mr. Chrestman assaulted anybody, was fighting with anybody on that day,” Cooper said. “...The court actually makes the point that yeah, there was a lot of things that happened out there that day, there were a lot of people who did break things and who did assault people. But not this particular person.

“We have nothing the government can point to, subsequent to January 6, to say that this is the reason why this person is a danger to his community.”

Cooper said new issues had come to light since Chrestman was first ordered to be held without bond. Among them, Cooper said: Chrestman wasn’t getting the opiates he needed for the chronic back pain he suffered as a result of a workplace accident, and his family faced possible eviction back home because he wasn’t able to fulfill his financial obligations.

“We’re not asking for the world here. We’re not asking for Mr. Chrestman to be put on personal recognizance,” Cooper said. “We understand that’s just not a reasonable thing, given the nature of where we are.”

But Cooper said the court could release Chrestman with some conditions, such as requiring electronic monitoring or prohibiting him from using social media.

Berridge said Chrestman’s medical concerns could be addressed in a separate motion.

“That has no bearing on his danger to the community,” he said. “He had these conditions while he did everything he did on January 6. It did not prevent him from doing those things.”

Letting Chrestman out into the community so he can get medical treatment doesn’t lessen the danger to the community, Berridge said: “It just puts him in the exact same position he was in before January 6, or during January 6.”

Also at last week’s hearing, Berridge told the judge that the government was working on possible pre-trial plea negotiations with a few of the defendants.

“I’ve talked to different counsel in the case in regard to preliminary negotiations that would lead to pre-trial dispositions, potentially,” Berridge said, adding that “those are still very nascent at this point.”

“That said, I think that they’re positive in that they’re just not a flat ‘no’ or anything like that,” he said. “So we are working on those talks. I expect that to take at least a few weeks to have those discussions and then formalize what we want to do moving forward.”

The defendants’ next court appearances are scheduled for Aug. 6.

J.R. Hobbs, the Kansas City attorney representing Colon, indicated that his client was willing to try to work with prosecutors to resolve his case.

“I will advise the court that we’re engaged in periodic discussions with Mr. Berridge, both about the progress of discovery and potential next steps towards a possible resolution,” Hobbs said.