For one of the biggest moments of his life, Eric Bochene wore a faded white t-shirt and sat in an empty, green-walled conference room, straining to hear the volume from the computer. He grimaced as the virtual conference technology glitched. And he frequently voiced his frustration with his situation.

Bochene pleaded guilty in late August to a federal criminal charge for his role in the U.S. Capitol attack. But he didn’t stand in a courtroom. His lawyer wasn’t standing next to Bochene. Instead the attorney was on a separate virtual conference connection. And Bochene wasn’t permitted to choose his own outfit.

Though he was pleading guilty to only a misdemeanor charge, Bochene was required to appear remotely for his hearing from a holding room in the Broome County jail in Binghamton, NY. He wore his jail outfit, sitting beneath fluorescent lights, because Bochene isn’t a typical Jan. 6 defendant.

Bochene is one of a growing number of U.S. Capitol riot defendants who absconded and became fugitives after their arrests or initial court appearances.

The prosecution related to the Jan. 6, 2021 siege is the largest in American history, with approximately 1,100 criminal defendants from nearly every state. Though more than 600 of those defendants have pleaded guilty and dozens more have gone to trial, at least six became – or were — fugitives over the course of this summer. Some are still wanted by the FBI. Eric Bochene was one of them

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    He was defiant during some hearings, invoking language consistent with the sovereign citizen movement.

    How you signal that you’re a complete piece of shit and that you’re guilty guilty guilty.

    • Rambi@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I thought the sovereign citizen thing fizzled out in the early 2010s. Also, it most of all signals that you’re incredibly incredibly annoying

      • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s a mail order scam that targets poor, criminal defendants with no education.

        They think they are buying law books of magic phrases that let them do whatever they want in court.

        There’s a great decision on it from a chief judge in Canada. I’ll try and find it.

        E - Meads v. Meads by Justice Rooke. Called to decide a simple legal dispute, he wrote a 100+ page treatise on sovereign citizens. It’s the seminal work. https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2012/2012abqb571/2012abqb571.html

        • Rambi@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Oh right, yeah I only really knew about it from videos of people being ticketed for speeding or whatever and them shouting about being a so sovereign citizen. It makes total sense that these people would be very easy to scam though

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    he once reviewed the possibility of denouncing his U.S. citizenship

    Pretty sure they mean renouncing…

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    1 year ago

    How is the number growing? They had at least dozens of people sifting through, like, 18 years of video, for… Years at this point. What siege? Is Lancelot in one of those clips? Those clowns essentially just went in. Pft. Siege. Bombast.

    • TheWoozy@dmv.social
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, the word “siege” is a little weird to repeat several times. I’d have said “attempted coup” at leat one of the times.

    • Restaldt@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The multiple hour siege on the capitol where Secret service had to barricade the doors and shot the first person who made it through?

      You seem to have no understanding of how many cameras with hours upon hours of footage, how much mobile data, or social media analytics are being combed through to identify and prosecute these traitors

      • Canis_76@feddit.nl
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        7 months ago

        … Some others of us seem to have no understanding of the manpower at the fingertips of government. It’s a free country. Delude away. I remember when 9/11 happened. It took 3 days to get enough (about 2500) sailors on my aircraft carrier so we could break all kinds of records getting to the Gulf, and blowing up all manner of things. 3 days, from vacation to under way. Introduce some discomfort, and a little accountability and watch the mass of society scream about traitors. If you don’t mind being led to slaughter, then hooray for you. If you had any foundational knowledge to begin with you would understand that this is, indeed, a very necessary part of the growing pains of our country. Some of us want to be led, not caring to which type of slaughter. Others prefer to be left to their own lives until it’s time to fight for them. It’s perspective I suppose. It can come from understanding, or the lack of.

    • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You’re pathetic, because you participate in online horse-meat dietary scams. Haha!

      January 6th was a literal insurrection, by the definition of the word, and many of the insurrectionists have been convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to long prison sentences. And prison is what they deserved, at least if not worse.