Christopher Worrell, Proud Boy from Long Island, should face more prison time, prosecutors say
Photographs provided by the FBI of Christopher Worrell on Jan. 6, 2021. Credit: Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to consider additional prison time for a Proud Boy with Long Island roots who cut off his ankle monitor and disappeared for more than a month as he faced sentencing.
Christopher Worrell, of Naples, Florida, who graduated from Greenport High School in 1990, will be sentenced Thursday before U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
Prosecutors, who initially sought a 14-year sentence for Worrell, say he faked an overdose at the conclusion of a six-week search and should spend even more time behind bars for showing “contempt” for the judicial process and a “lack of remorse.”
“The Court should lengthen Worrell’s sentence to ensure that other defendants do not think that fleeing prior to sentencing will lead to no consequences once they are caught,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia William Dreher in a Dec. 26 memo to Lamberth.
Dreher said FBI agents performed what they thought were “lifesaving procedures” on Worrell after they discovered him unresponsive in his Florida home with an open bottle of opioid prescription medication in his hand Sept. 28. It was his first time returning home after cutting off his ankle monitor in a Walmart parking lot Aug. 14, four days before his initial sentencing date. Worrell also had night-vision goggles, $4,000 in cash and new camping gear when he was found, prosecutors said.
After spending five days in a hospital, where he was under the supervision of a sheriff’s department that had to foot the bill for his medical expenses, Worrell admitted faking the overdose, Dreher told the judge.
“That is galling,” the prosecutor wrote.
Worrell, a cancer survivor, was granted supervised release due to his medical condition following his convictions during a bench trial for assault, obstruction of Congress and other offenses. He was also granted compassionate release for medical reasons as he awaited trial.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Worrell, who prosecutors said exchanged emails with other Proud Boy members about the need to protest the 2020 election results prior to Jan. 6, was facing an estimated 14 to 17½ years in federal prison prior to fleeing. Worrell’s attorney, William L. Shipley of Kailua, Hawaii, had argued for a sentence of 30 months home detention prior to his client skipping the initial sentencing.
Shipley said that while his client, an admitted Proud Boys member, “deployed pepper spray in the direction of police” guarding the barricade outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, he did not enter the building.
“It should not be overlooked that the worst part of Mr. Worrell’s acts happened over a 2-3 second period when he depressed the trigger mechanism on the container of pepper spray,” Shipley wrote to Lamberth. “But for that single act, it is unlikely that Mr. Worrell would have faced any charges.”
Prosecutors say Worrell “played a pivotal role” in collapsing a portion of the police line that day. They also noted for the judge that Worrell portrayed himself as a “political prisoner,” and made claims of false valor by exaggerating his brief military service from decades ago, raising more than $180,000 following his arrest.
Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.
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