An attorney representing North Brunswick, N.J., resident Christopher Quaglin, who is being held in a Warsaw, Virginia, jail for his role in storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 said Tuesday his client is being "starved" and risks dying because the facility refuses to accommodate his special diet for celiac disease.
"They're starving the guy out," New York attorney Joseph McBride told The Epoch Times. "They have moved him six times since he's been detained. We can't send him to a facility that's not going to be able to take care of him."
Quaglin was arrested at his New Jersey home last April and was later charged with assaulting police at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when several hundred supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the building, according to NJ.com.
Although U.S. Magistrate Judge Zahid Quaraishi ordered Quaglin to home detention with a bond signed by Quaglin's wife during a hearing in Trenton, he also granted a prosecution stay on the release until federal attorneys prosecuting others involved in the protest could be consulted and sent Quaglin to the Essex County Jail in New Jersey.
Instead of going home to await a trial, Quaglin was sent to five other facilities since April, and is now at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, after being deemed "a danger" to be released, according to the Epoch Times.
McBride said Quaglin's condition, an autoimmune disease that can cause damage to the small intestine when people eat gluten, which is found in wheat, barley, and rye, and can cause weight loss, fatigue, diarrhea, bloating, and anemia, according to the story.
He alleged the jail is not allowing for Quaglin's condition in its meal preparation and refusing his requests to accommodate the diet.
"If somebody has celiac disease, the food has to be prepared the same way a Jewish person's kosher food would be prepared: separate," McBride said. "Everything needs to be separated, because if there is cross-contamination, you can kill him. He lost close to 20 pounds now since Dec. 21."
In a statement to the Epoch Times, jail Superintendent Ted Hull said Quaglin is getting the "appropriate" care.
"Regardless of Mr. McBride's fictitious assertions, inmate Quaglin is, and has been, receiving the appropriate dietitian designed diet consistent with his specific dietary requirements and the appropriate level of medical services consistent with his diagnosis," Hull's statement said.
Quaglin is accused of assaulting and spraying a substance into the face of Capitol Police during the Jan. 6 incident.
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