Colts Neck Army Reservist Indicted On Capitol Riot Charges

COLTS NECK, NJ - A Colts Neck resident - an “avowed white supremacist” and a military contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle - was indicted last week on seven counts in federal court in connection with last month’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to court documents.

Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli, 30, was arrested in January and lodged in Monmouth County Jail. He is also enlisted in the United States Army Reserves. At Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck, he maintains a “secret” security clearance and has access to a variety of munitions.

A confidential source reported Hale-Cusanelli after he showed the source videos of himself inside the Capitol building during the riot, court documents said.

Hale-Cusanelli’s criminal complaint details a history of extremist views, describing him as a “Nazi sympathizer who posts video opinion statements on YouTube proffering extreme political opinions and viewpoints” on his channel Based Hermes Show.

Following the riots at the U.S. Capitol, authorities found copies of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and neo-Nazi aligned race war novel The Turner Diaries in Hale-Cusanelli's apartment, according to the criminal complaint.

The confidential source was able to record a conversation between themselves and Hale-Cusanelli, with the Colts Neck resident admitting to taking a flagpole that he observed another rioter throw “like a javelin” at a Capitol Police officer, which Hale-Cusanelli described as a “murder weapon.” He also mentioned his intent to destroy the flagpole as soon as he could.

Previous coverage: Colts Neck 'Avowed White Supremacist' Charged In Capitol Riot: PD

The indictment lists the following charges:

• Knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds
• Obstructing, impeding or interfering a law enforcement officer during civil disorder
• Knowingly, and with intent, to disrupt official government functions
• Disorderly or disruptive conduct at the grounds or inside Capitol buildings with intent to disrupt a session of Congress
• Parading or demonstrating inside a Capitol building

Although the Monmouth County man was scheduled to be released on bail on the eve of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, his release from Monmouth County Jail was postponed over his "potentially catastrophic risk of danger to the community," federal prosecutors said last month.

Per a Law and Crime report, the Monmouth County man has since been barred from the base. The Army Reserves is also reviewing his status, leaving prosecutors wary of Hale-Cusanelli's next move.

"Given his impending debarment from Naval Weapons Station Earle, and his potential Administrative Separation from the U.S. Army Reserve, defendant's release will likely leave him with nowhere to go and nothing to do except pursue his fantasy of participating in a civil war," prosecutors wrote last month. "After returning home from storming the capitol, defendant told a friend that he 'couldn't describe how exhilarating it was' to participate in the protest. When asked how he would 'recreate' that sensation, defendant replied: 'War. Civil war.'"

According to prosecutors, Hale-Cusanelli's views have only been getting more extreme while he has been detained. The defendant has expressed that the "system" is "getting more illegitimate every day," "it will only be a "matter of time" until a civil war is ignited and "'it's going to be the [expletive] good old boys in the Midwest, Texas, and Arkansas' who prevail."

Court documents say that Hale-Cusanelli admitted his role in the Capitol riot to FBI agents, noting that he argued there was a "strong chance President Trump would be with them.”

Last month, it was ordered that Hale-Cusanelli be transferred by the U.S. Marshals Service from Monmouth County to Washington D.C. Over 150 individuals have been charged in connection with the Capitol Hill riots on Jan. 6 (including a former Monmouth County corrections officer), which resulted in the death of five, including a Capitol police officer from South River.

Related: Neptune Twp Rescinds Probe Into Local Officers At Capitol Riots

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