A Proud Boy convicted over his role in the Capitol riots faked a drug overdose in an attempt to delay his sentencing, the Department of Justice revealed Tuesday in a filing requesting a harsher sentence and increased fine be imposed on the Florida man.
Christopher Worrell, 52, disappeared from house arrest, cutting off his ankle monitor and going on the lam days before he was supposed to be sentenced on seven criminal charges in mid-August. “He apparently had no intention of ever turning himself in,” prosecutors wrote Tuesday in a sentencing memorandum.
Six weeks later, after a multistate search that had federal agents running down leads from New York to California, the FBI reported his recapture, saying he was found “unconscious” after he tried to “covertly return” to his home.
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That was all an act—which he then kept up, according to prosecutors. Worrell, found with a bottle of opioid prescription medication in his hand, maintained the lie that he had overdosed “during a five-day hospital stay,” they wrote, “wasting the time and money of both medical staff and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, which provided deputies to watch Worrell 24/7 in a non-secure hospital location and was left to foot the bill for Worrell’s unnecessary medical care.”
“The entire time,” they added later in the memorandum, “Worrell knew he was fine.”
A pair of deputies assigned to watch him were paid $5,340 for their overtime labor by the sheriff’s office, which was also billed for Worrell’s medical expenses.
His ruse was discovered after he emailed a friend in November about the incident. The friend, identified only as B.S. in an attached exhibit, asked if Worrell had really tried to kill himself, adding, “I need to know the truth bro.”
“I did not!!” Worrell replied. “Will explain more when we talk.” In a subsequent email, he wrote, “I have never and will never lie to you. It was a stupid delay tactic.”
Prosecutors pointed out that this episode brought into question whether Worrell had ever previously faked a medical emergency “for strategic reasons in this case.”
As his May trial date approached, they alleged, Worrell sought “multiple continuances based on a months-long series of medical episodes” that he argued made it unsafe for him to travel to Washington, D.C. or even sit through his trial.
“Yet once he had been convicted,” prosecutors wrote, “Worrell felt healthy enough to flee in Florida’s summer heat, cut off contact with his treating physicians, and live as a fugitive while carrying night-vision goggles and camping gear.”
The memo noted that prosecutors weren’t disputing Worrell’s documented status as a cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, nor that he had, “over the past three years, fainted multiple times, broken his finger, and required jaw surgery from years of radiation treatment.”
But, prosecutors said, “[a]t this point, Worrell’s claims of past medical mistreatment while in custody should be viewed as suspect.”
Worrell was ordered released to home detention in Nov. 2021 after a judge found that D.C. jail officials had dragged their feet on adequately treating him for his medical issues, including his cancer and a broken finger that he claimed required surgery. This May, he was convicted on seven counts at a five-day bench trial.
Prosecutors said in court filings that the Proud Boy showed up to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 “ready for battle” and wearing body armor. He “spewed vitriol for half an hour” as the mob of Donald Trump’s supporters attempted to overwhelm the police officers holding the line, calling them “commies” and “scum.” He also assaulted officers with pepper spray gel, bragging that he “deployed a whole can.”
“When confronted with this conduct at trial, Worrell showed no remorse,” prosecutors added in a sentencing memo. “Instead, though under oath, he spun falsehood after incredible falsehood in an effort to deflect responsibility and cast himself as a hero intervening to protect the police. He told these lies without shame.”
Prosecutors previously asked the court to sentence Worrell to 168 months in prison; among the longest sentences requested for a Jan. 6 defendant to date. They did not specify how long they now believe he should be imprisoned.
He faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars. The harshest sentence yet handed down was a 22-year term given to former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio for seditious conspiracy.
