The attorneys for a New Jersey jock charged with pledging allegiance to ISIS bizarrely claimed his obsession with the phobia group stemmed from desirous to be “on a crew once more” — following a mind harm from soccer.
Tomaskann Jimenez-Guzel’s protection crew mentioned the 19-year-old accused wannabe jihadist was weak to being brainwashed due to “an intensive historical past of traumatic mind accidents” from getting battered as a beginning defensive finish on Montclair Excessive College’s soccer crew.
Jimenez-Guzel, who was seemingly headed for Division I faculty soccer, misplaced his sense of goal, id and neighborhood after he was compelled to retire from the game in 2023 over his accidents — which left a void that different aspiring terrorists stuffed, the courtroom papers from Monday declare.
“Misplaced, Tomaskaan appeared to the web and faith to make sense of the world and discover connection,” the submitting claims. “He turned socially remoted, spending hours studying about worldwide politics on-line. He adopted on-line rabbit holes to darkish corners of the Web, together with quite a lot of TikTok reside group chats the place customers espoused extremist views and disseminated ISIS propaganda.”
“He wished to really feel like he was on a crew once more, bonded intently to others, with a shared sense of goal,” the attorneys mentioned.
The protection attorneys made the weird arguments in an 18-page letter asking Justice of the Peace Decide José Almonte to launch Jimenez-Guzel — the son of a UN diplomat who heads a girls’s enterprise company — from the federal lockup he’s been held at since his November arrest.
They requested that he be launched on $500,000 bond to dwelling confinement at his retired worldwide improvement lawyer dad’s in Maryland — plus the extra precautions of GPS monitoring and monitoring of his on-line actions, the attorneys steered.
Jimenez-Guzel would additionally enter a de-radicalization remedy program known as Dad and mom for Peace Program, below the protection crew’s proposal.
The attorneys claimed he’s been tormented by migraines from his mind harm that aren’t being correctly handled in jail. They insisted he’s not a hazard to the neighborhood.
Jimenez-Guzel is being given the unsuitable medicine for the migraines that are made worse by the intense fluorescent lights in his cell, periodic blaring alarms, and the “screams and cries” of different inmates close by, the submitting claims.
Previous to his arrest, Jimenez-Guzel had been on a trial of month-to-month injections for the migraines and he’d been ordered to bear further testing — which by no means occurred due to his arrest, the attorneys mentioned.
His physician discovered he has “goal [cognitive] impairment” and “purposeful impairment,” the courtroom paperwork declare.
He was arrested in November on prices he swore his loyalty to ISIS, deliberate to maneuver to the Center East to assemble a gaggle of violent jihadists and threatened violence towards Jewish individuals and different non-Muslims.
And regardless of his on-line exercise, he by no means damage anybody and he by no means would — particularly given the ache he’s already brought about his household, the doc claims.
His historical past reveals “him to be a teen with deep household and neighborhood roots, a very good scholar, a accountable son and brother, and an individual who will be trusted by the Courtroom to adjust to all circumstances, notably given how a lot his household has already suffered following his arrest and the way detest he can be to position his household and people who assist him in any additional jeopardy,” the courtroom papers declare.
“To say he was a misguided, immature teenager is to not decrease the seriousness of the allegations however to clarify to the Courtroom that he had no intention of ever hurting anybody, and that he has by no means in reality damage anybody,” his attorneys wrote.
Jimenez-Guzel was arrested alongside Milo Sedarat, 19, the son of a famous Iranian-American poet who can also be from Montclair, a leafy suburb about half-hour from Manhattan.
Sedarat was allegedly infuriated about the truth that his mom had Jewish buddies and was accused of claiming that he wished to execute “500 Jews” and drive their wives and youngsters into slavery, a legal criticism alleged.
He additionally mentioned he wished to make use of his automobile to mow down a pro-Israel march in Montclair — which is NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s hometown, prosecutors claimed.
Sedarat, Jimenez-Guzel and one other defendant, Saed Ali Mirreh, 19, of Washington state, chatted in on-line teams with others from world wide — together with from Finland, Sweden and the UK — about migrating to Syria, constructing a gaggle of ISIS-inspired terrorists and finishing up violence towards non-believers.
Jimenez-Guzel and Mirreh are charged with conspiracy and try to offer materials assist to a international terrorist group and resist 40 years behind bars if convicted on all counts.
Sedarat was hit with two counts of transmitting a risk in interstate and international commerce and will face 10 years behind bars if convicted on each prices.
The New Jersey US Lawyer’s Workplace didn’t instantly return a request for remark Thursday.
