WASHINGTON — Prosecutors on Monday asked a judge to dismiss charges against an Alabama man accused of throwing a 4x4, metal barricade and other objects at police – but provided no explanation for their request.
In a brief filing, the Justice Department asked a magistrate judge to dismiss six charges, including two felonies, against Dillon Herrington, of Madison. Prosecutors provided no reasoning for the request, but asked for the case to be dismissed without prejudice, which would allow for the charges to be refiled at a future date.
The filing comes nearly two years to the day after Herrington was charged with assaulting police and other counts. Herrington was given the nickname “MagaLumberjack” by an online community known as “Sedition Hunters” who seek to identify participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He was eventually positively identified to the FBI by a law enforcement witness who had known him for more than a decade.
Court records show the last status hearing in Herrington’s case occurred in November 2021. Subsequent status hearings scheduled for December 2021, and January, March and April 2022 were all continued. The last order issued in the case was filed on April 26, 2022, when U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui granted another continuance and tolled the speedy trial clock until June 10, 2022.
Federal law requires indictments in felony cases to be filed within 30 days of an arrest and trials to commence within 70 days from when that indictment was filed – although that time requirement, known as the speedy trial clock, is often pushed back at the request of one or both parties in the case. The court docket shows no indictment was ever filed in Herrington’s case.
A new assistant U.S. attorney entered an appearance in the case on May 31. He filed the motion to dismiss the charges five days later. As of Tuesday morning, Faruqui had not ruled on the DOJ’s request.
Prosecutors have sought to dismiss charges in at least two other Jan. 6 cases. In June 2021, Faruqui granted their request to dismiss a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and other misdemeanor charges against Christopher M. Kelly, of New York. Prosecutors also sought to dismiss an indictment against Lucas Denney, a Texas militia founder, after admitting they had violated the Speedy Tral Act by failing to file an indictment until 85 days after his arrest. Denney, represented by attorney William Shipley, surprised prosecutors and the court by instead indicating his intention to plead guilty to the single-count indictment prosecutors had brought against him at the last minute – an effort to avoid multiple other serious felony counts. Denney was sentenced in September to four years in prison for assaulting police with pepper spray.