Michael Curzio was originally arrested on January 6 inside the Capitol. He was released that evening with a misdemeanor charge and a court date. The next week he was raided by the feds in his home state of Florida and arrested again. Over more misdemeanors. He was denied bond due to his prior criminal history, having gone to prison for violent charges and joining a gang to survive after several attempts on his life. Despite Michael’s past, however, he was not charged with any violent conduct whatsoever after January 6. He was denied bond and took a plea deal to tend to his ailing parents back home. He was only able to get home after sitting in solitary confinement for six full months in the DC jail. His judge was not happy he could only be sentenced to the six-month range of his misdemeanor plea deal, so instead of sentencing Michael to time served at his sentencing hearing, the judge made him serve the additional two days needed for a full six-month sentence. That was how the justice system treated Mike, whose biggest crime on January 6 was telling Capitol Police inside the building how much he respected law enforcement. Mike Curzio was judged for his past, not his actual conduct on January 6, and while he was one of the first defendants in the DC jail gulag he would not be the last.
“Dear: Cynthia Hughes 6-16-21
Thank you for everything that you are doing for us. From the bottom of my heart thank you. This is without a doubt the most trying time in all of our lives right now and just knowing that there are people out there advocating for us and defending us means so much. We are all going to be in the history books, hopefully on the good side. Again thank you and keep our cause going. You are an amazing person and please never stop fighting.
Thank you again: Michael Thomas Curzio”
Transcribed by Sara Sass