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J6 BOP PRISONER GETS PARDON, THEN SUES FCI ELKTON FOR LOUSY MEDICAL CARE
A retired Pennsylvania firefighter who threw a fire extinguisher that hit two police officers during the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has sued FCI Elkton for failing to treat his numerous medical ailments. The BOP’s medical nonfeasance, according to the plaintiff, eventually led to surgery and chronic pain.
Robert Sanford was one of more than 1,500 people President Trump pardoned for crimes committed during the Jan 6 attack.
Sanford was sentenced in 2023 to four years and four months in prison for throwing the fire extinguisher at officers defending the Capitol while calling them “traitors.” He was released in October 2024 after the BOP filed a compassionate release motion asking his sentencing judge to release him about 19 months early on a 52-month sentence because of Sanford’s undisclosed “terminal medical condition.” The court filing redacted the medical condition.
After his release, Trump pardoned him and 1,499 of his closest friends, all fellow rioters.
Sanford’s lawsuit says Sanford was physically fine when he arrived at the prison. In early 2024, he developed worsening back pain that went untreated despite multiple requests for medical care, the lawsuit says. He filed the suit in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, but it was transferred to Cleveland.
A doctor prescribed a steroid in May 2024, but it did not help, according to the lawsuit. In July, Sanford reported that the pain was so severe that he struggled to walk. Later that month, he returned to the doctor in a wheelchair and was again prescribed steroids. The wheelchair was replaced with a cane, the lawsuit says.
He returned to the doctor, who accused him of faking his illness. Sanford was then thrown into the SHU, according to the lawsuit.
After an X-ray on Aug 1, he was diagnosed with arthritis in his hip and hip impingement syndrome, the lawsuit says. He fell while using a walker the next day. Despite his pleas for help, he was not seen by prison doctors for four days.
Doctors then sent him to a nearby hospital, where they found that he had serious blood clots, a badly fractured hip and lung cancer, according to the lawsuit.
Seriously hurting but accused of faking it? Who’s ever heard of such a thing happening at the BOP?
Sanford v, FCI Elkton, Case No 4:26-cv-02034-S (ND Ohio, filed May 18, 2026)
~ Thomas L. Root