NC man, seen in Capitol police attack, freed to live with grandfather before trial

After two judges, three court hearings, hours of legal arguments and hundreds of pages of court filings, it took a grandfather to get Matthew Beddingfield out of jail and back to North Carolina.

A grandfather without a smart phone or an internet connection in his home.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols of Washington allowed Beddingfield, a 21-year-old eastern N.C. man, to return to his home state to await his trial on multiple counts of violence tied to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He was expected to be released later that day from a Virginia jail, 90 miles from the courtroom.

Nichols’ decision overruled an appeal by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Green of release order handed down last week by U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.

Green told both judges that Beddingfield, of Middlesex, already has proven to be a threat to his community and that he could not be trusted to follow the court’s rules of release.

NC man charged at U.S. Capitol

Beddingfield, according to the prosecutor, went to the Capitol with his father 14 months ago while out on bond for an attempted murder charge tied to the December 2019 shooting of a teenager in Smithfield. (Beddingfield later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and received probation.)

He then became one of the first rioters to attack police lines, which, according Green, he did both inside and outside the building.

In one assault described by Green in open court for the first time, Beddingfield slashed and stabbed at the genitalia of an officer trying to block him and others from reaching the Capitol. His weapon: a pole he carried bearing an American flag.

“You need to back up. This is not the way to do it,” the officer said, according to Green’s account in court.

“F--- you!,” Beddingfield replied, according to the prosecutor. “You’re on the wrong side. Join us.”

Beddingfield was later photographed holding the same flagpole in one arm while giving a Nazi salute with the other.

Nichols, who was appointed to the D.C. federal bench by former President Donald Trump, described Beddingfield’s behavior, as depicted by the government, as “egregious at a minimum.” But Nichols ruled that Beddingfield, under the right restrictions, could be safely released, in part because he will be living with his grandfather, Douglas Wood.

Wood, a Vietnam veteran, plumber and recovering alcoholic who lives alone in rural Nash County, told the judge he will do his best to make sure his grandson follows the conditions of his release and promised to report him to the government if he does not.

Nichols said Wood was in the position “to provide unique protection for the safety of the community ... protections that exceed those in other cases” involving violent Capitol defendants.

Much of that has to do with where Beddingfield will be living. Wood said his two-bedroom home has no internet service. His only phone is a land line.

According to the judge, that will keep Beddingfield from returning to social media sites, which he’s prohibited from doing while he awaits his trial.

In arguing for continued detention, Green said Beddingfield, while out on bond for the attempted murder charge, frequently violated his no-social media ban to post “vile and violent” messages promoting racist and Neo-Nazi sentiments.

Under additional conditions set by the court, Beddingfield will wear an electronic monitor, live under a curfew and can’t have any visitors outside his mother and sister. Wood must also remove the door to his grandson’s bedroom. The judge told Beddingfield he can’t return to work for six weeks in part so he can prove he can do what’s he’s been told.

Capitol riot court cases

Beddingfield, who lives about 25 miles east of Raleigh, is the second youngest of at least 18 North Carolinians charged in connection with the Jan. 6 violence, set off when thousands of Trump’s supporters, enraged by the lame duck president’s unfounded claims of a stolen election, stormed the Capitol to stop congressional certification of Trump’s defeat.

Up to seven deaths have been linked the riot, and 140 police were injured.

The arrests continue. More than 775 have already been charged. Beddingfield is among 245 defendants accused of assaulting, resisting, or impeding police. If convicted of the most serious charges on his nine-count indictment, Beddingfield faces years in prison.

His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Kyana Givens of Raleigh, told Nichols that Beddingfield deserved to be released, and she accused the government during the hearing of “looking very hard to make Matthew look more dangerous than he actually is.”

With his grandfather’s help and the court’s conditions of release, Beddingfield “can rise up to expectations,” she said. “Mr. Wood looks to support him, but also to direct him.”

Before gaveling the hearing to a close, Nichols had one last thing to say. He directed it to Beddingfield and his grandfather, who took part in the proceedings over video feeds.

“Let me say this and loud and clearly as I can,” the judge said. “I want to give you a chance. But if you screw up even in the most minor way, I will look very disturbingly at that.“

Beddingfield will be back before Nichols in 45 days. He’ll be dialing in from North Carolina. As part of his release, he’s banned from returning to D.C.

This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 10:55 AM with the headline "NC man, seen in Capitol police attack, freed to live with grandfather before trial."

Michael Gordon

The Charlotte Observer

704-358-5095

Michael Gordon has been the Observer’s legal affairs writer since 2013. He has been an editor and reporter at the paper since 1992, occasionally writing about schools, religion, politics and sports. He spent two summers as “Bikin Mike,” filing stories as he pedaled across the Carolinas.