Defense lawyers for the man charged with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last week say he is no longer on suicide status in the Washington D.C. jail he's being held in, according to a court filing from Sunday afternoon.
The attorneys said their client, Cole Tomas Allen, was previously being deprived of his dignity and resources by being unnecessarily kept under suicide precautions.
In a motion filed Saturday, Allen’s attorneys requested that he be taken off any suicide restrictions, which they characterized as “demeaning,” while he’s awaiting further hearings in the case. The attorneys said they are withdrawing his motion for removal from suicide status since it’s now moot, and asked Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui to cancel a hearing that had been scheduled for noon on Monday.
Allen’s attorneys wrote that his “placement on suicide watch and suicide precautions amount to violations of his rights under the Due Process Clause to the U.S. Constitution” because he “has exhibited no indications of suicidality,” the motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia states.
Prosecutors could face this challenge at trial for WHCA dinner suspect
Allen was armed with multiple guns, as well as knives, officials have said, when he sprinted through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the event was being held on April 25.
Allen, 31, fell to the ground and was taken into custody, officials have said.
His defense team argued in the motion that Allen has been held under varying levels of suicide watch at different times since his arrest that night.
As of Friday, he was under suicide precautions, which are less restrictive than suicide watch, the motion says, despite a nurse’s recommendation that day that the designation be removed.
Allen at one point was held in a “safe cell,” which is “a padded room with constant lighting and 24-hour lockdown procedures, including the requirements that the inmate in the room wear a vest akin to a strait jacket, be strip searched upon entry and exit, and not leave the cell except for legal or medical visits,” the filing states in a footnote.
The restrictions have prevented Allen from communicating with anyone besides his legal team, as well as accessing the commissary or resources such as jail tablets, the filing states. His lawyers wrote that they believe he has also been unable to review case documents they leave for him.
The motion — signed by defense attorneys A.J. Kramer, Tezira Abe and Eugene Ohm — states that while Allen’s attorneys do not believe there is “expressed intent to punish” him, “his placement on suicide precautions amounts to punishment.”
Kramer did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Justice Department has not responded to the filing, according to court records. A spokesperson for the D.C. Department of Corrections, which operates the facility where Allen is being held, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Allen, a California teacher, is charged with attempting to assassinate the president, transportation of a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
A judge this week ordered that he remain held in custody as the case proceeds. Allen has not entered a plea.
Video the Department of Justice released this week shows a man identified as Allen running through a security checkpoint. It also shows him shooting a Secret Service officer, said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
Allen said in writings that he intended to target members of the Trump administration from highest-ranking to lowest, prosecutors have said.
The scramble to protect the president and whisk away dignitaries — including first lady Melania Trump, multiple members of the president’s Cabinet and Congress — took place as the dinner was underway in the hotel ballroom. The event was canceled for the night.
