A Wisconsin man fled to Eire and sought asylum to keep away from a jail sentence for becoming a member of a mob assault on the U.S. Capitol greater than three years in the past, federal authorities mentioned in a court docket submitting Tuesday.
The submitting accuses Paul Kovacik of defying a court docket order to give up and serve three months behind bars for taking part within the January 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol.
Kovacik, 56, was arrested final month after voluntarily returning to the USA from Eire. Kovacik is serving his sentence in a federal jail in Chicago and is scheduled to be launched on Sept. 8. However a conviction on the brand new misdemeanor cost may imply extra jail time.
Kovacik instructed authorities he determined to withdraw his asylum utility and return to the USA as a result of he was homesick, based on an affidavit from a U.S. Marshals Service agent.
The FBI initially arrested Kovacik in June 2022. A yr later, U.S. District Decide Reggie Walton sentenced Kovacik after he pleaded responsible to a misdemeanor cost of marching, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol constructing.
Kovacik recorded movies of the injury attributable to rioters as he moved by the Capitol on Jan. 6. He then uploaded the footage to his YouTube channel, with captions equivalent to “Treason towards the USA is about to be dedicated,” based on prosecutors. They mentioned Kovacik’s legal historical past included 24 prior convictions.
Walton initially ordered Kovacik to report back to jail on Aug. 22, 2023, however the decide agreed to increase that deadline to Nov. 1, 2023, after Kovacik requested extra time for his seasonal employment at a theme park in Georgia.
The court docket issued an arrest warrant for Kovacik after he flew to Dublin, Eire, through Germany, on the day he was on account of report back to a Chicago jail.
Kovacik referred to as himself a “political prisoner” when investigators questioned him after his arrest final month at an arrival gate at Minneapolis-Saint Paul Worldwide Airport, based on the agent’s affidavit.
Authorities discovered paperwork associated to his asylum utility in his baggage, which cited worry of political persecution, the MP wrote. The affidavit doesn’t say whether or not the Irish authorities acted on Kovacik’s utility.
An legal professional who represented Kovacik in his Capitol riot case declined to touch upon the brand new cost.
Greater than 1,400 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Jan. 6 assault. A number of different Capitol riot defendants have turn into fugitives at totally different levels of their trials.
