"Inmate with Celiac Disease Starving to Death," says Attorney

A man charged in connection to the Capitol riot who is an inmate at a Virginia jail is at risk of dying, his attorney says. Celiac inmate who has not received dietary accommodation and adequate medical care loses 20 pounds.

Elizabeth Faddis, Breaking News Reporter , washingtonexaminer.com ¹

Christopher Quaglin, who is being held at Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw pending a trial, is being denied a special diet and adequate medical care for his celiac disease, an autoimmune disease that can lead to damage in the small intestines if food with gluten is eaten, according to attorney Joseph McBride.

“They’re starving the guy out,” 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.”

People with celiac disease require the food 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 the 21st of December,” he added of his client.

Ted Hull, the jail’s superintendent, shot back at McBride’s claims.

“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 said.

Quaglin, a New Jersey resident, was arrested in April and charged in federal court for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers and disrupting a congressional proceeding during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. He is also allegedly a “self-proclaimed” member of the Proud Boys, a right-wing group, according to a pretrial detention memo.

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Clay Higgins of Louisiana were among a group of 14 politicians that sent a letter to Michael Carvajal, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Jan. 3 requesting that he use his authority to investigate instances of alleged “abuse” in federal imprisonment, and if not, they would use their “authority to investigate [his] failure.”

Quaglin had previously been jailed in Washington, D.C., where Greene, along with Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, visited the facilities and raised concerns about the treatment of Jan. 6 detainees as they await trial. McBride said Quaglin was moved after Greene and Gohmert’s visit and made an appearance on the cover of Greene’s report “Unusually Cruel: an Eyewitness Report From Inside The DC Jail.”

“The jail retaliated against him,” McBride said. “Marjorie and Louie were there on the 4th. Christopher was moved from there in the middle of the night to Lewisburg on the 9th. From Lewisburg, he was moved to Alexandria and from Alexandria to Northern Neck. This is all retaliatory, punitive.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to McBride and the Northern Neck Regional Jail for further comment.