Biography
Dane Powell was the only one of approximately 230 people charged in the federal Disrupt J20 prosecution to serve significant prison time. He was arrested on January 20, 2017, the morning of Donald Trump's first presidential inauguration, during the black-bloc march through downtown Washington, D.C. that became known as J20. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia initially charged virtually every protester arrested that morning — including journalists, legal observers, and bystanders — with felony rioting and conspiracy carrying potential decades-long sentences. After more than a year of mass-defendant trials that produced uniform acquittals and prosecutorial misconduct findings, the U.S. Attorney's Office dismissed the remaining charges in July 2018.
Powell was the exception: he pleaded guilty in May 2017 to felony rioting and assault on a police officer (he had thrown a concrete chunk that struck an officer). He was sentenced on August 18, 2017 to four months in federal prison. He served his sentence at the D.C. Central Detention Facility and at a federal facility, and was released in early 2018. His case is regularly cited as the only conviction to result from one of the largest political mass-arrests in modern Washington, D.C. history.
