No Release For Colts Neck 'White Supremacist' Charged In DC Riot

COLTS NECK, NJ - A federal judge has blocked the release of a Colts Neck man - an "avowed white supremacist" - who has been charged in the Capitol Hill riots in Washington, D.C., authorities said.

While Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli, 30, of Colts Neck was slated to be released on bail on the eve of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, his release from Monmouth County Jail has been postponed over the man’s “potentially catastrophic risk of danger to the community,” federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Hale-Cusanelli was charged last week with obstructing police officers as well as knowingly entering restricted buildings or grounds and disrupting the orderly conduct of government business during the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. The Monmouth County resident was also charged with willfully and knowingly uttering loud, threatening, or abusive language and engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct with the intent of impeding a session of Congress.

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

Hale-Cusanelli is enlisted in the United States Army Reserves and also works as a contractor at Route 34's Naval Weapons Station Earle where he maintains a “secret” security clearance and has access to a variety of munitions, according to court documents. However, per a Law and Crime report, the Colts Neck 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.

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. Hale-Cusanelli also made his extremist views known on his YouTube channel “Based Hermes Show." He posts similar content in other forums, court documents said.

“Although it might otherwise be possible to attribute the "Based Hermes Show" and an interest in Mein Kampf and The Turner Diaries to morbid curiosity or First Amendment expression, defendant’s actions and statements make plain his beliefs in White Supremacy, and his interest in participating in a civil war to preserve what he believes to be the proper order of American society,” prosecutors wrote.

“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.'”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne J. Bongiovanni previously ordered Hale-Cusanelli’s conditional release on bail earlier on Tuesday. However, prosecutors pushed Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell to reverse the order, arguing that “releasing Defendant from custody will only reinforce his belief that his cause is just,” according to court documents.

“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.

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.”

“If nothing else, the events of January 6, 2021, have exposed the size and determination of right-wing fringe groups in the United States, and their willingness to place themselves and others in danger to further their political ideology,” prosecutors wrote.

Hale-Cusanelli will remain in custody until the previous order for release can be reviewed.