'Patriot warrior' who tried to flee US after Jan. 6 agrees to stipulated bench trial

WASHINGTON — A Colorado geophysicist who allegedly attempted to flee the country in an effort to avoid arrest in connection with Jan. 6 has agreed to a stipulated bench trial, according to court records.

Jeffrey Sabol, 53, of Kittredge, Colorado, was indicted in January 2021 as part of what became a nine-defendant case alleging multiple assaults on police at the entrance to the Lower West Terrace Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol. The tunnel was the scene of some of the most prolonged and brutal attacks on officers during the Capitol riot, including the crushing of D.C. Police Officer Daniel Hodges in a doorframe and the electroshock assault on former Officer Michael Fanone.  

Sabol is charged with assaulting another DC Police officer, identified as “B.M.” in court filings, by grabbing him and dragging him down a set of stairs and then repeatedly punching him. In charging documents, investigators said a top-down photo of the assault shows Sabol holding a police baton against the back of the officer’s neck.

In an interview with police following his arrest in New York on Jan. 11, 2021, Sabol allegedly claimed he was only “patting” the officer on the back and that he had answered a call to battle “because he was a patriot warrior.”

Sabol was arrested in New York after flying to Boston from his home in Colorado with the intent to flee to Switzerland because he was “paranoid that he was going to be charged with sedition,” according to prosecutors. In court documents, prosecutors said Sabol rented a car and left the airport after seeing police he worried were looking for him. He was arrested more than 200 miles away in New City, New York, after police received a report of a vehicle driving erratically.

According to charging documents, police found Sabol covered in blood and suffering from lacerations to his legs and arms. Sabol allegedly told the arresting officers, “I am tired, I am done fighting” and that he had been “fighting tyranny in the DC Capitol.” Sabol has been held in pretrial detention since his arrest.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras issued a minute entry stating Sabol had consented to a stipulated bench trial to be scheduled at a later date. In a stipulated bench trial, prosecutors present a set of facts agreed to by both parties they feel are sufficient to uphold a conviction on one or more counts. The presiding judge then makes a determination of guilt. Although under Supreme Court precedent stipulated bench trials are not always tantamount to a guilty plea, defendants who agree to them can – and in multiple Jan. 6 cases have – argue they deserve a reduction in their sentences for acceptance of guilt. In August, three other defendants indicted in a separate case linked to assaults on police inside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel were convicted by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in a stipulated bench trial.

Sabol faces 13 felony counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder and assaulting police with a dangerous weapon and robbery in a federal enclave – the latter charge alleging he stole the baton he used to assault Officer B.W. from a second officer. The docket entry Wednesday did not indicate which charges Sabol intended to stipulate to and his attorney, Alex Cirocco, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Several of Sabol’s co-defendants have already pleaded guilty. Three defendants -- Jack Wade Whitton, Justin Jersey and Logan Barnhart – pleaded guilty in September to assaulting police. Jersey was sentenced in February to 51 months in prison and Barnhart was sentenced in April to three years. A fourth defendant, Mason Joel Courson, pleaded guilty to assaulting police with a dangerous weapon in November and was sentenced earlier this month to nearly five years in prison. In February, Peter Stager, of Arkansas, pleaded guilty to one felony count of assaulting police with a dangerous weapon for repeatedly striking Officer B.M. with a flagpole. Whitton and Stager await sentencing. A fifth co-defendant, Michael Lopatic Sr., of Pennsylvania, died last July at the age of 58

Along with Sabol, two more defendants in the case still await trial. Ronald McAbee, a former sheriff’s deputy from Tennesse, and Clayton Ray Mullins, of Kentucky, are scheduled to begin a jury trial in late September.