Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer has gone AWOL from the US authorities

Jon Schaffer
(Image credit: Roberto Schmidt/AFP)

Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer is seemingly trying to evade US authorities, who are trying to serve him with court documents relating to the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol in Washington DC.

According to a report in The Republic, court process servers appointed by the Washington DC Attorney General have made at least 25 attempts to deliver documents to Schaffer, who was one of the first six people to illegally break into the Capitol Building, that action is being taken against him for his part in the riot.

The report says that the authorities have been trying to track down Schaffer, who lives in Columbus, Indiana, at seven different locations in three states, since the start of the year, but the guitarist has so far evaded them.

The search has apparently involved “a variety of tools and teams of skip tracers, process servers, private investigators and outside counsel.”

The authorities are required to hand-deliver a notice to Schaffer that the District Of Columbia is suing him in relation to his involvement with the January 6 insurrection. 

According to The Republic, Schaffer has several homes in Columbus, plus other residences in Delaware and Florida. He is required to notify the authorities if he travels outside the state of Indiana.

Washington DC Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit in December 2021 against Schaffer, who is a member of right wing extremist group the Oathbreakers, and nearly 40 other people seeking to recover “extraordinary damages and costs” due to the riot. 

In April 2021, Schaffer pleaded guilty to breaching the US Capitol while armed with bear repellent and obstructing an official proceeding. He was among the first six people to break into the building.

Under the terms of his bail, Schaffer was forced to surrender his passport.  give up the right to possess firearms and prohibited to visit Washington DC except for court hearing. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.l

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