Steele to be released awaiting trial

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Paul B. Johnson, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Mar. 24—TRIAD — A former High Point Police Department officer will be released from federal custody to at-home detention while awaiting trial for her role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection because she doesn't constitute a danger to the public, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Laura Lee Steele, 52, of Thomasville has been in federal custody since Feb. 17 after being arrested and indicted along with nine other members of a group called the Oath Keepers who breached the Capitol on the day of the presidential vote certification by Congress. The indictment says that members of the group planned ahead for an assault on the Capitol that day.

The U.S. Department of Justice wanted to keep Steele in federal detention leading up to her trial, saying that if she was released from custody she would constitute a threat to the public.

But Judge Amit Mehta of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that while Steele's actions leading up to, during and after the insurrection were deeply troubling, her personal history and the lack of evidence that she committed or organized acts of violence on Jan. 6 justified releasing her to go home. Mehta's ruling came after a more than hour-long hearing.

Mehta said he's troubled about aspects of Steele's behavior, such as allegations by federal prosecutors that after returning to Thomasville she may have burned the clothing she wore at the Capitol and that she deleted possibly incriminating text messages and Facebook posts.

But the evidence doesn't merit finding that Steele would represent a danger to the public if placed under supervised at-home incarceration, the judge said.

Steele will have to abide by a series of orders, such as remaining at home while wearing a 24-hour monitoring device, not contacting any Oath Keepers members, surrendering her passport if she has one and not having possession of or access to firearms.

Steele's defense attorney, Peter Cooper, said his client can meet all conditions, including the one about firearms access. Steele's husband is retired High Point Police Department Assistant Chief Ken Steele, and their two adult sons who live at the residence are law enforcement officers.

During the hearing, Cooper argued that Steele doesn't constitute an immediate threat to the public because she has no previous criminal record, she and Kenneth Steele have been married over 20 years, and she has a 45-year history of ties to the community.

Federal prosecutors presented a trove of evidence about Steele's involvement in the events of Jan. 6 but no direct evidence that she took part in violence or wore riot gear at the Capitol, Cooper said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler argued that Steele's actions justified keeping her in federal detention.

The Oath Keepers, a paramilitary group, touted Steele's law enforcement background and bragged that "bringing her on bolstered their credentials," Nestler told the court.

Despite being a former law enforcement officer, Steele "didn't contact law enforcement or the FBI" following the Capitol riot to share information with authorities, Nestler said.

Steele and nine other people associated with the Oath Keepers were named in a single, multi-count indictment last month. Overall, more than 300 people have been charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and prosecutors have said about 100 more probably will be charged.

pjohnson@hpenews.com — 336-888-3528 — @HPEpaul

Recommended Stories

  • ‘Fire this corrupt man’: USPS chief Louis DeJoy unveils mail rollbacks as Democrats demand his removal

    US Postal Service proposes longer first-class mail delivery, shorter office hours and higher postage prices

  • Jay Leno apologizes to Asian Americans for decade of 'wrong' jokes

    Television host Jay Leno has apologized for more than a decade of jokes about Asian Americans, saying he had committed a "legitimate wrong." The apology by Leno, the former host of U.S. television's popular "Tonight Show," follows a long campaign by the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) and a spike in hate crimes against the community that has received renewed attention since a shooting in Atlanta last week that left eight people dead, six of them Asian-American women.

  • Illegal migrants will be denied right to settle in UK even if granted asylum

    Illegal migrants will be denied the right to settle in the UK even if they are granted asylum under plans by Priti Patel to crush people-smuggling. The Home Secretary is proposing that those who get asylum will only be granted "temporary protection status", which means they will be regularly reassessed for removal from the UK, have limited family reunion rights and no access to benefits unless destitute. Only those who come to the UK through legitimate routes – via official Government refugee schemes from war zones or to escape persecution – will be entitled to indefinite leave to remain. The twin-track approach is designed to "break the people-smugglers' business model" as anyone they bring illegally into the UK will never enjoy citizenship and will only ever be a "temporary" member of British society at risk of removal at least every 30 months. Home Office sources said the plans, to be enshrined in law in a Sovereign Borders Bill this autumn, met the UK's international obligations under human rights and refugee conventions – but they are likely to face a major legal challenge. It represents the biggest shake-up in the asylum system for 50 years, and for the first time makes the way a migrant enters the UK the determinant in how an asylum claim progresses, and their eventual status. It follows a record 8,500 migrants crossing the Channel in small boats last year.

  • 3 Best Vanguard Mutual Funds to Buy in April

    Vanguard stands apart from other mutual fund companies because it is owned by the funds themselves.

  • Secret until now, records reveal clash over the Trump DOJ’s demand for NC voter data

    Federal prosecutors said repeatedly they suspected “pervasive” and “systemic” fraud, but in the end charged 70 people out of millions of NC voters and found no conspiracy.

  • Zoo Miami releases photos of the new baby, born to an endangered black rhino

    What we all could use now is a cuteness overload.

  • You can get COVID-19 after a vaccine but it's rare, 2 new studies find

    A handful of "breakthrough" cases have popped up post-vaccine, but it's no reason for concern - just a reminder not to throw out your mask.

  • Krispy Kreme offered free doughnuts to people who get COVID vaccinations. It led to some strange backlash.

    Some people said Krispy Kreme's free donut offer could lead to obesity, while others defended the company for promoting COVID-19 vaccines

  • The best credit cards for groceries of 2021

    Among the best credit cards for groceries, the Blue Cash Preferred Card and Blue Cash Everyday Card offer high rewards rates at U.S. supermarkets.

  • UK's Johnson mulls tougher rules for France as EU's COVID situation 'difficult'

    Britain might have to toughen restrictions on arrivals from France, including hauliers, to defend against new variants of the COVID-19 virus spreading from the rest of Europe where the situation was difficult, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. Britain has banned foreign travel until at least May 17, except for essential work, education or health reasons. Asked whether France should be put on the red list, which is a category of countries from which most travel to Britain is banned, Johnson told a parliamentary committee that testing hauliers would have an impact on trade flows.

  • ‘Morbid’: Melania Trump sent a birthday message to Barron. It didn’t go over so well

    Well, this don’t go as well as expected.

  • An actor. A sports fan. An officer responding to the scene. These are the 10 victims of the Boulder, Colorado, shooting

    Police in Boulder, Colorado, identified the 10 victims of the shooting at King Soopers on Monday. These are their stories.

  • Michael Keaton reveals he's undecided on Batman role in The Flash movie, says COVID-19 will 'determine everything'

    The actor says he hasn't even looked at the script sent to him as he's concentrating on another project.

  • Thousands of Thai protesters demand monarchy reform, release of jailed leaders

    Thousands of protesters gathered in the Thai capital Bangkok on Wednesday to demand reform of the monarchy and the release of jailed leaders, days after one of the most violent demonstrations since they began last year. Thailand's youth protest movement emerged last year and has posed the biggest challenge to the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief who seized power in 2014 from an elected government. More than 30 civilians and police were injured in a clash at a protest near the palace on Saturday, after police used water cannon, teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the rally.

  • 'Two and a Half Men' star Sophie Winkleman says nobody in Hollywood knew she was a royal

    Winkleman, who married into the royal family in 2009, told Insider that she refused to use the royals' last name while working on the sitcom.

  • Missing woman found naked inside a Florida storm drain. How she got there is bizarre

    A 43-year-old woman who had been missing for three weeks was rescued Tuesday after she was found trapped inside a storm drain just a few feet away from a busy Delray Beach thoroughfare. The bizarre rescue began early Tuesday during rush hour when a good Samaritan heard yelling coming from a drain on Atlantic Avenue and called 911, according to Delray Beach Fire Rescue. The woman told officers she went for a swim in a canal near her boyfriend’s home in West Delray Beach on March 3, according to Delray Beach police.

  • Queen’s Tenth Great-Grandchild Born on the Bathroom Floor

    Alan Crowhurst/Getty ImagesQueen Elizabeth’s tenth great-grandchild was born Sunday—on the bathroom floor.Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall, and her husband, the former England rugby player Mike, had not been planning a home birth but were unable to make it in time to the hospital when the baby, a boy who is 22nd in line to the throne, arrived with a minimum of pomp and circumstance.The unusually informal circumstances of the latest royal birth were disclosed by Mike Tindall on the sports podcast The Good, The Bad and The Rugby.Mike said that after watching rugby matches all weekend: “Sunday got even better because a little baby boy arrived at my house.”As his co-hosts showered him with congratulations, Tindall said he was feeling “brilliant” after the birth at 6 p.m. Sunday.At the time the podcast was recorded, the couple had not chosen a name, with Tindall saying, “We always struggle with that, we have never picked one before they arrive.” However, a spokesperson for the couple subsequently said Wednesday, “Zara and Mike Tindall are happy to announce the birth of their third child, Lucas Philip Tindall.” The baby’s second name is a tribute to Prince Philip, who is due to turn 100 in June. He will have no title as Princess Anne’s children were not given “HRH” styling at her request to enable them to lead more normal lives.A Buckingham Palace spokesman said, “The queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are delighted with the news and look forward to meeting their 10th great-grandchild when circumstances allow.”Asked if the baby was “bonny,” Tindall said he weighed eight pounds four ounces and arrived “very quickly.”“We didn’t make it to hospital. On the bathroom floor,” he said.Asked if he was hands-on at the birth, Tindall revealed that a friend of Zara’s who had been present at the birth of the couple’s previous children was on hand again.“She was there and recognized that we wouldn’t have got to hospital in time, so yeah, it was running to the gym, get a mat, get into the bathroom, get the mat on the floor, towels down, brace, brace, brace.”Tindall added, “Fortunately the midwife who was going to meet us at the hospital wasn’t that far away so she drove up, and got there just as we’d assumed the position. The second midwife arrived just after the head had arrived!”Mike said, “As every man would say, she was a warrior, they always are, we can never judge a woman in terms of what they have to go through in childbirth. She was back up, we went for a walk this morning with him and it’s all good.”Tindall said he cut the cord: “I was literally like, ‘Snip. Snip-snip. I got a boy, I’m out of here.’Tindall added, “The best thing about being at home was, as soon as he’s wrapped up, skin on skin, [we went] straight downstairs, TV room, golf on, and I’m like, ‘This is what you and me are doing.’”He said he also watched a vintage rugby game from 1996 with his newborn son.“The training has begun already, twelve hours in,” his co-host joked.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Syrian-born alleged Boulder shooter shows anyone can ‘assimilate into American culture,’ says Michael Moore

    Reports say alleged shooter’s family had emigrated to the US from Syria in 2002

  • Tight Israeli vote means Arab Islamist could choose next PM

    After a hard-fought election, an Arab Islamist could choose Israel's next prime minister. Tuesday's elections have left a razor-thin margin between a right-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a diverse array of parties bent on ousting him. To prevail, each side may need the support of an Arab Islamist party that appears to have clinched just five seats in the 120-member Knesset but is not committed to either, according to near-final results.

  • A 27 year-old man who thought he was an only child recently discovered he's the second oldest of 31 kids

    "I have essentially been on FaceTime 10 hours a day for 4 days straight getting to know as many... as possible," Andy Torrey told In the Know.