(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Oran Alexander Routh, 35, the son of failed Trump assassin Ryan Routh, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to possessing child pornography, and a federal judge released him from pretrial detention.
U.S. District Judge L. Patrick Auld’s decision to release the younger Routh went against the Justice Department’s urging and followed a spirited hearing, during which Routh’s mother and FBI agent Garrett Foo both testified.
The hearing started with the mother, Laura Routh, testifying that she’d serve as a suitable third-party custodian for her son. Prosecutors expressed skepticism, asking the mother about Oran’s allegedly abusive behavior.
Laura Routh said she’d make sure her son followed all the conditions of his release, including remaining inside, attending all hearings and staying off drugs.
“I think we’ll be just fine,” she said.
FBI agent Foo—who signed the criminal complaint for Oran—then testified about the gruesome details of Oran’s case.
According to Foo, the FBI found more than 20 devices linked to Oran. At least two were found to contain child pornography, and the bureau is continuing to search the others, he said.
Foo described horrific child-abuse videos on Oran’s phone, including one of a child as young as 3 years old being abused. Foo said there were “hundreds” of child-porn videos on Oran’s phones.
Foo also recounted Oran’s lengthy history of misdemeanor crimes, the most serious being an assault on his ex-girlfriend in 2016. In that case, he was given a deferred prosecution agreement. However, he failed by committing another crime: taking the same girlfriend’s phone and running off with it when she threatened to call the police on him for drunken driving.
It was also revealed that Oran was under investigation for possessing child porn since late last year, when the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, NCMEC, flagged a video allegedly on his phone. NCMEC passed that tip along to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office, which visited his mother’s home in February.
At the time, Oran’s mother told law enforcement she didn’t know her son’s address. She did tell Oran that the sheriff’s office was looking for him, but he never contacted law enforcement.
In any event, the sheriff’s office executed a search warrant on Oran’s phone after receiving the NCMEC tip, and found neither the originally flagged video nor any other evidence of child porn.
It’s not clear whether the FBI knew about the NCMEC child-porn tip before searching his home earlier this month in relation to his father’s alleged assassination plot. Agent Foo inititally said heknew about the NCMEC tip before changing his testimony to say that he only found out afterward.
Either way, DOJ prosecutor Eric Iverson used the mother’s lack of knowledge about her son’s whereabouts to imply that she was not a suitable custodian.
The DOJ also hammered Oran for the drugs found at his home, which included ketamine, MDMA and cocaine.
Oran’s defense attorney responded by stressing that the drugs found were in smaller quantities for personal use—not for dealing.
However, Judge Auld agreed with the defense—and with the probation officer’s recommendations—that Oran be released on strict conditions. He’s on “total lockdown,” as his defense attorney put it, and is barred from the internet.
Oran had been a stage rigger for a firm called Stage Co. before his arrest. It was said in court that he travelled around the country, as well as overseas, to build stages for concerts. No one said where overseas Oran has worked.
Oran was still being processed out of his pretrial detention as of the publication of this article.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
