Federal attorneys appeal home detention for 'pink hat lady' charged in Capitol riot

Federal attorneys say a Mercer County woman known as “pink hat lady” is too dangerous and too much of a flight risk to be allowed to remain at home while she awaits trial for her suspected role in the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

“It is difficult to fathom a more serious danger to the community,” U.S. attorneys wrote in an appeal of the decision, calling 40-year-old Rachel Powell “a highly visible figure from the insurrection.”

Powell, of Sandy Lake, is charged with obstruction, depredation of government property, being in a restricted building with a dangerous weapon and violent entry or disorderly conduct. She was arrested Feb. 4 in New Castle, nearly a month after she was among the rioters who stormed the Capitol as Congress voted to affirm Joe Biden’s election win.

In a detention hearing on Tuesday, attorneys for the government argued Powell is dangerous, pointing to video clips from the Capitol showing Powell using a battering ram to break a window.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan agreed with the idea that Powell is a danger to the community but said adequate conditions – home detention with electronic monitoring, it was decided – would keep the community safe.

Federal attorneys asked the judge to stay that decision while they filed an appeal, to which the judge agreed, saying she would stay the ruling until 5 p.m. Wednesday. The appeal was filed Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Washington, D.C.

“Not content to peacefully demonstrate,” attorneys wrote in the appeal, “she used a battering ram to break into the U.S. Capitol. In doing so, she put the lives of both law enforcement and rioters in jeopardy.”

Powell’s defense attorney, Michael Engle, argued that his client has no criminal history, home schools five of her six juvenile children and has ties to the community.

“It’s inconceivable she would want to flee for some extended period of time,” he said during Tuesday’s detention hearing, arguing that although one of the counts against Powell is characterized as a crime of violence, she did not harm any person that day.

Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin and Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi disagreed, writing in the appeal that her charges could carry hefty penalties if she’s convicted, “which incentivizes flight and evading law enforcement.”

The motion points to the fact Powell might have already been making those plans, having dropped her children at their father’s house without explanation and the discovery of apparent “go bags” in her home.

Attorneys stressed their allegations that Powell is a serious danger to the community.

“It bears repeating,” they wrote, “that the defendant was a leading participant in the most violent insurrection to occur at the U.S. Capitol in over 200 years.”