A judge in a case involving Proud Boy and alleged Capitol insurrectionist Dan Goodwyn got angry and started shouting when the defendant refused to wear a mask in court or get vaccinated. His lawyer argued that he’s “not into vaccines” and wearing a mask is “torture.”
Goodwyn is a member of the SPLC designated hate group Proud Boys. He was at the Capitol on January 6 and allegedly participated in the insurrection, where Trump supporters stormed Congress in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and install Donald Trump as president.
Related: The Proud Boys beat up a man & shouted ‘fa**ot.’ Now they’re facing charges.
According to court documents, FBI agents went to Goodwyn’s parents’ house in Texas on January 29 to arrest him. Someone in the house said that they had COVID-19, but they refused to say if they had a positive COVID-19 test result. Goodwyn refused to take a COVID-19 test or wear a mask.
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The agents handcuffed him and put a mask on him, but he chewed it up and spit it out. In the drive to jail, he went through five masks that way, court documents say, and he had to be put in quarantine. He refused to wear a mask during his first appearance in court.
Goodwyn and his lawyer appeared in a virtual emergency hearing this week since Goodwyn has been refusing some meetings with pre-trial services and refusing to wear a mask to the others. He is also accused of playing “word games” with court employees. The hearing was on whether Goodwyn should be sent back to jail to await trial.
According to journalist Scott MacFarlane of NBC 4 Washington, Goodwyn’s lawyer said that his client still doesn’t want to wear a mask.
“Goodwyn cannot wear a mask… and is not into vaccines,” the lawyer told the judge. From a “mental health standpoint,” the attorney argued, his client is incapable of wearing a mask because it “is like torture.”
“We have a pandemic!” the judge yelled, threatening to hold the lawyer in contempt because he wouldn’t stop talking when the judge was talking.
The lawyer then said that Goodwyn will “flip out” if forced to wear a mask.
“He’s putting other people’s lives at risk,” the judge said.
The lawyer asked for virtual hearings as a possible solution, but the judge said that Goodwyn will have to appear in court at some point.
“This is the angriest I’ve heard any judge in any Jan. 6 case so far. Easily,” MacFarlane wrote.
Then the defense attorney said that Goodwyn didn’t cooperate with court employees because they were “prissy” and “arrogant.”
“Judge is now screaming at defense lawyer,” MacFarlane wrote. “Both defense lawyer and client might end up in jail.”
The judge turned to Goodwyn to find out exactly what his problem is with masks, and he said, “It stresses me out.”
“There is not any proof of asymptomatic transmission,” he said. “There’s no proof wearing a mask would prevent it.”
“When did you go to medical school?” the judge asked.
The judge ordered Goodwyn to undergo a competency exam and to wear a mask during home visits from court employees.
“I’m not gonna do that,” Goodwyn said.
“Then I’m going to issue a warrant for your arrest,” the judge threatened.
“Law in Texas doesn’t require a mask,” Goodwyn rebutted.
“I don’t care,” the judge said. “If you don’t wear a mask, you will be arrested. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” Goodwyn said, “that you’re saying that.”
Goodwyn’s inability to accept objective reality – even the basic fact that a judge can have someone arrested – may be familiar to many Americans, especially over a year after the start of the pandemic. MacFarlane noted that the discussion mirrored conversations throughout the country about masks and vaccines, except here one person in the argument has the power to throw the other in jail.
Goodwyn is accused of being a member of the Proud Boys who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6.
In charging documents….. feds allege Goodwyn used Trump picture for his Twitter profile pic… and promoted "Stand Back & Standby" pic.twitter.com/Ddb5pekSK5
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) July 29, 2021
The Proud Boys is a white supremacist group that encourages its members to engage in violence, and it is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Even the FBI says they are an “extremist group with ties to white nationalism.”
In 2018, a video circulated social media of the Proud Boys beating up a leftist activist while calling him a “faggot,” something that the group’s founder, Gavin McInnes, defended because “there is truth in the word faggot.”
