The image of a Metropolitan Police Officer struggling and trapped between the surging mob and a set of doors to the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, is seared into many of our minds. But one of the defendants who is believed to have been part of that mob has filed a lawsuit demanding that he be released from pretrial detention, Law & Crime reports.

On Tuesday, New Jersey resident Christopher Joseph Quaglin, 36, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus that claims U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and jail superintendent Ted Hull are treating him with “malicious indifference” regarding his medical condition while he is being held in pretrial detention at a Virginia prison.

Joseph McBride Jr., Quaglin’s attorney says his client has been moved to six different facilities since his arrest in April 2021 and adds “the intensity and duration of his mistreatment grows worse with each transfer.” Quaglin is currently being housed at the Northern Neck Regional Jail (NNRJ) in Virginia.

Quaglin is one of nine defendants named in a complaint that details numerous alleged assaults against police officers who were trying to hold back the violent mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Videos of officer Daniel Hodges being trapped between the crowd and the Capitol building doors has been widely circulated on social media.

I’m including one harrowing video here:

But McBride says his client is the one who’s being attacked.

“Petitioner alleges that his serious underlying medical condition — celiac disease — has been treated with deliberate indifference, which has caused him to suffer irreparable harm,” per the complaint.

“Respondents have also moved Petitioner six times over the past year and have failed six times to feed Petitioner correctly,” the complaint alleges, adding that Quaglin has lost nearly 40 pounds. “This is not negligence, nor is it a mistake, it is purposeful and deliberate torture.”

Perhaps Quaglin should have given his health some thought before becoming involved in the Jan. 6 fiasco — and before allegedly torturing officer Hodges.

I don’t know. Just a thought.

Other conditions cited in the complaint do, indeed, sound less than pleasant. They include “disgusting unsanitary living conditions,” which included “black mold, rats, roaches,” and being “forced to drink brown and/or black looking water,” McBride said, adding that Quaglin’s constitutional and human rights are being violated.

The attorney also alleges his client is being “purposefully exposed to danger by being housed in notoriously hostile parts of the jails,” and isn’t being housed with others accused in the Jan. 6 attack.

“Unlike other January 6th detainees who occupy what is called the “Honor Pod,” Petitioner is forced to live in dangerous sections of the jail that are notorious for housing the Bloods, MS-13, and highly dangerous Cartel members,” per the filing. “NNRJ does this to punish Petitioner by making him live in a constant state of fear and anxiety about what may happen to him at any given moment.”

The complaint also reveals details about emails between McBride and Hull, the jail superintendent. In those emails, Hull insists Quaglin’s rights are being protected and that he’s being provided with celiac-compliant food. Hull alleges McBride and Quaglin are the instigators.

“Documentation reflects that your information is inaccurate,” Hull writes in an email dated March 9. “While there is evidence to suggest that your client is less than compliant with his dietary requirements he is none the less being provided with a menu that is consistent with his medical condition.”

At one point Quaglin was accidentally served a standard lunch, and Hull wrote that this was a one-time oversight and an “incidental mistake.”

McBride has also complained about Quaglin being placed in solitary confinement after a fight with “a member of a notorious international street gang,” Hull fired back that Quaglin was actually responsible for the fight.

“Your client did, in fact, incur injuries associated with an altercation with another inmate that initial evidence suggests inmate Quaglin instigated, if not initiated,” Hull wrote in the March 9 email.

And Hull also wrote that Quaglin has been offered prescription medication, but he has “generally medication non-compliant.”

The email interchange between McBride and Hull has grown more heated over time. At one point, McBride even threatened to file a lawsuit if he was not permitted to have a video conference with Quaglin.

“Then sue me,” Hull fired back on March 28.

Sounds like legal fun and games to me. I wonder if Donald Trump is concerned about Quaglin’s situation?