Alan Hostetter, the former Fontana Assistant Police Chief who federal prosecutors say participated in the January 6 insurrection in Washington D.C., has asked U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to allow him to represent himself in the case being presented against him, court records show.
Lamberth, after sternly warning Hostetter that he runs a severe risk by serving as his own attorney, conditionally ruled that the former lawman turned political activist/agitator can do so. Hostetter, after more than four months of delays in the case, is now seeking a speedy trial.
Hostetter has experienced considerable success in thrilling and motivating crowds of people who share his political philosophy that holds the federal government is involved in a grand conspiracy to foreclose the rights of the American people through false claims that the COVID-19 pandemic represents a mortal threat. With the guidance of a so-called standby counsel, a court-appointed attorney paid for by the government to scrutinize his motions, responses to motions and in-court performance, Hostetter believes he can use his rhetorical talent to prevent a jury of his peers from convicting him of the charges lodged against him.
Hostetter engaged in obstructing an official proceeding, entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct within a restricted building and disorderly conduct within a restricted building in order to disrupt or impede the government so to prevent attendance at an official proceeding, according to Channing D. Phillips, the acting United States Attorney in the District of Columbia.
The federal indictment of Hostetter further describes how a nonprofit he set up, the American Phoenix Project, which he said was intended to stand as a beacon of truth in the torrent of misinformation that was accompanying the COVID-19 “panic” to prevent Americans’ Constitutional rights from being violated and to educate the masses with regard to vaccines while counteracting intentional misrepresentations by the mass media, was misused to engage in political activities in defiance of federal tax law. Though the American Phoenix Project was cataloged by the Internal Revenue Services as a tax-exempt organization, Hostetter and his associates utilized the nonprofit’s media arm to support Donald Trump and assert that the November 2020 election had been stolen from the ex-president. Federal tax law prohibits anyone speaking on behalf of a nonprofit to support a political candidate or oppose a political candidate.
According to the federal government, Hostetter physically threatened those who maintained that Joseph Biden’s election last year was legitimate.
The American Phoenix Project was, Phillips said, “a platform to advocate violence against certain groups and individuals that supported the 2020 presidential election results.”
Initially, Hostetter was represented by attorney Bilal Essayli, who in the immediate aftermath of his client’s June indictment said that while Hostetter “used strong language” in many of his public pronouncements, “that doesn’t make him a criminal.” Hostetter and five others from Southern California he was indicted with – Russell Taylor, Erik Scott Warner, Felipe Antonio “Tony” Martinez, Derek Kinnison and Ronald Mele – “didn’t commit any acts of violence,” Essayli insisted. “They had an opportunity to go into the Capitol. They didn’t do that. They just wanted to voice their opinion that they objected to the certification of the election, as did many members of Congress also place their objections.”
Essayli said a “distinction should be drawn from those who forcibly entered the Capitol or committed damage from the peaceful protesters that were outside of the Capitol protesting.” Moreover, Essayli asserted, Phillips and others in the Justice Department did not include any charges relating to the misuse of the American Phoenix Project as a nonprofit.
At this point, according to Hostetter, despite the excellent advocacy Essayli has engaged in on his behalf, he can no longer pay for it. If Essayli takes the matter to trial, Hostetter maintains, he will be driven into bankruptcy.
Hostetter also suggested that he will not “play nice” when the case goes to trial, but intends to illustrate that there is a huge conspiracy afoot that involves secret societies such as the Freemasons as well as Yale fraternities Book & Snake and Skull & Bones which have wormed their way into control of the federal government, and that he fully intends, in mounting his defense, to illustrate corruption within the Federal Bureau of Investigation by showing that FBI informants and agents were embedded in the protest groups and militias that came to the nation’s capital in January, and that those agents and informants led, sparked and encouraged the violence that occurred as part of the government conspiracy to discredit the movement in protest against takeover of the government by liberal forces and Joseph Biden’s theft of the election from Donald Trump.
Though Judge Lambert sought to discourage Hostetter from seeking to represent himself by quoting the adage that “a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client,” he said he would not and could not prevent Hostetter from doing so as long as Hostetter submits an affidavit or a sworn statement that he cannot afford to pay for such representation.
Hostetter indicated he would do so.
The prospect of that had federal prosecutors salivating on a number of levels.
Hostetter, who left the Fontana Police Department after he achieved the rank of assistant chief there to take on the post of police chief with the La Habra Police Department, retired in 2010 after a 24 year law enforcement career that began when he went to work for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in 1986. Through the California Public Employees Retirement System, he is currently receiving an annual pension in excess of $158,000. In 2020, records show, he collected a pension of $155,820.48. Pensions through the California Public Employees Retirement System are subject to an annual cost of living adjustment of up to 3 percent.
Individuals who knew Hostetter previously, including ones who served as police officers with him, have concerns about his mental state. Previous to going to work in law enforcement, Hostetter, after graduating from high school in 1982, joined the Army, training as an infantryman. He was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas with the 1st Cavalry Division and did a tour of duty with the 3rd Infantry Division in Aschaffenburg, West Germany. Upon becoming a policeman, he went on to become a graduate of the 212th session of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy at Quantico, Virginia; Class 38 of the California Police Officers Standards and Training Command College; and Class 105 of the Sherman Block Supervisory and Leadership Institute.
After his retirement, he took up yoga as a means of maintaining flexibility, suppleness and muscle tone. He immersed himself in the discipline, becoming a self-styled yogi, and was a dedicated teacher of a type of yoga focused on healing and relaxing centered around stretches and poses known as asanas and vinyasas and breathing exercises known as pranayama, augmented by the use of hypnotic sound created by American Indian flutes, Tibetan bowls and Aboriginal didgeridoos, which are used to create a “sound bath” surrounding practitioners. In January 2017, he created Alpha Yoga of Orange County, which catered mostly to senior citizens and the wives of wealthy businessmen in San Clemente, Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano. Hostetter’s transformation was profound, as he talked about eliminating everything other than “good vibes” and seeking out spiritual fulfillment, getting in touch with his own soul and how yoga could make such cosmic realizations for others possible. Hostetter made a remarkable physical changeover as well, having gone from the clean cut military/police officer model he had typified in his 20s, 30s and early 40s to a bearded and long-haired guru hippy type.
In a very short period of time, immediately after the advent of the COVID-19 crisis, Hostetter made an abrupt retransformation from the left to the right, remaking himself as a conservative political activist. In April 2020, he abruptly closed down Alpha Yoga of Orange County, instead diverting practically all of his time and energy into the American Phoenix Project, a nonprofit organization, of which he was the founder and director, vowing it would “move America forward as we come out of this national ‘shelter-in-place’ nightmare… fight back against the corruption and abuse taking place at all levels of government, local to national… reform the main stream media entirely… reform social media platforms… educate the public regarding vaccinations and vaccination programs.” At rally after rally he would address the crowds that showed up, worshiping Donald Trump as “The greatest president and political leader this country has ever had.”
The government has videos of many of his public appearances and speeches.
Prior to the Washington, D.C. protests, Hostetter can be heard on an audio recording at a rally characterizing Democrats as “elected whores,” criminals who through a crooked electoral process had stolen the election to put their kingpin Joseph Biden in the White House, an act tantamount to treason, he said, which “patriots” would not stand for. Those members of Congress directly participating in the theft – meaning the Democrats – and the ones passively allowing it to happen – meaning the Republicans who were RINOs or Republicans In Name Only – would suffer the fate of being “tie[d] to a fucking lamppost,” he said.
In a video of Hostetter shot while he was on the U.S. Capitol’s upper West Terrace on January 6, he can be seen and heard proclaiming that the people had “taken back their house” even as rioters were occupying the building.
The government has also obtained text messages and other electronic communications passed between Hostetter and others indicted with him prior to the January 6 insurrection.
On December 28, 2020, Warner initiated a group text message thread in which he, Mele, Kinnison and Martinez discussed logistics and expenses for their upcoming cross-country road trip. On December 29, Hostetter and Taylor texted each other regarding travel and whether they would bring firearms.
A Telegram chat involving all of the defendants included Taylor stating, “I am assuming that you have some type of weaponry that you are bringing with you and plates as well.”
In a video posted to the internet, Hostetter maintains, “I have never been more sane, more happy, more optimistic and more excited about what I’m about to embark on, defending myself and exposing these crimes against me and those crimes against this country.”
According to Hostetter, “I never ever engaged in any act of violence. I never destroyed one piece of property. I never even entered the Capitol building. I think I maybe got a little too close in their eyes, and sang the national anthem a little too loud, maybe a little off key. What happened January 6 was a total false flag staged event,” he said, meaning that Deep State operatives had infiltrated the ranks of President Trump’s supporters and had engaged in illegal actions for which President Trump’s supporters and those resisting and protesting the theft of the election were now being blamed. As a result of that false flag activity, Hostetter said, he and his fellow defendants were “under the microscope from the Deep State.” Nevertheless, he insisted, “We patriot warriors will prevail.”
-Mark Gutglueck