Jan 6 defendant sues DC police over alleged beating at the Capitol

A Minnesota woman who allegedly suffered a beating at the Capitol building on Jan. 6 has filed a federal lawsuit against members of the Metropolitan Police Department, alleging assault, battery, and excessive use of force.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks damages from members of the Metropolitan Police Department, including police chief Robert Contee III, and seven unnamed officers known as "John Does."

According to The Epoch Times, the lawsuit initially sought $1 million in damages, but Joseph McBride, Victoria White's attorney, said the suit will be amended "with a dollar amount significantly higher than the preliminary ask of one million dollars."

"Nothing will ever right the wrong committed against Ms. White, but making sure that she is compensated for the egregious injuries that she suffered on January 6, 2021, is certainly a start," McBride said in a statement.

Video unsealed by a federal judge in December shows White, along with others, clashing with police in the West Terrace tunnel.

White is struck by police around 40 times in a four-minute span, which includes hits to the head with a steel baton, and punches to the face and head reportedly delivered by an officer in a white shirt.

"McBride said he believes the officer in white is a Metro D.C. police supervisor, who is listed in the lawsuit as Officer John Doe 1," wrote The Epoch Times.

McBride added that the suit was filed on Jan. 5, with claims that some of the allegations could have one-year statute of limitations.

White was issued a criminal complaint on April 7 by federal prosecutors, where she was charged "with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, impeding or attempting to impede law enforcement officers performing official duties, and obstruction of Congress," according to The Epoch Times.

McBride said White has suffered "great trauma" due to the beating.

"Years of healing and progress were literally beaten out of her by the police on January 6th," he said in a statement. "The scars and trauma related to past abuse were torn open again. A multitude of preexisting repetitive trauma injuries [were] aggravated to the point where she can never fully recover."

"She felt deep in her gut and in her heart that President Donald J. Trump had wrongfully lost the election," McBride said. "Therefore, she felt compelled to go when she heard that people were going to protest the election results on January 6th in Washington D.C. Her decision to go was less of a choice and more of a civic duty, as she truly felt the election was stolen."