A Maryland police officer was convicted Friday of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol with rioters and throwing smoke bombs and other weapons at officers guarding a tunnel entrance.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden convicted Montgomery County Police Officer Justin Lee of two felony counts and three misdemeanors this week after two days of trial testimony without a jury. The judge also acquitted Lee of two other misdemeanors and is scheduled to sentence him on Nov. 22.
Lee, 26, lit and threw a smoke grenade into a tunnel entrance on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol where a group of rioters were attacking an outnumbered group of police officers. The grenade hit an officer’s riot shield and filled the tunnel entrance with a huge amount of smoke. The prosecutor.
“No police officer should have to endure this type of attack or provocation,” McFadden said.
Lee, who remains free until sentence, did not react as the judge read out the verdict, and his lawyer declined to comment after the hearing.
rear Lee was arrested in October last year.Police said Lee had been suspended without pay, and police spokeswoman Sheila Gough said the force would “proceed with the termination process” because Lee had been convicted.
“The actions of one individual do not define the entire police department,” the department said in a statement last year.
Lee, a native of Rockville, Maryland, applied to be a police officer with the Montgomery County Police Department in July 2021, six months after the riot. Police say they hired Lee about a year after the riot and were unaware of his alleged involvement in the attack until they learned in July 2023 that he was the subject of an FBI investigation.
Video footage shows Lee outside the Capitol wearing Maryland flag gaiters over his face and a military-style medical bag attached to his clothing.
According to prosecutors, when rioters attacked the police line at West Plaza, Lee waved to other rioters to pass them. The judge found that Lee then moved to the Lower West Terrace and threw a smoke bomb and three “stone-like objects” at the police guarding the tunnel. Prosecutors said Lee and other rioters then “spotlighted” the police in the tunnel with their flashlights.
The judge rejected Lee’s argument that he was “just trying to make a statement” about police brutality after watching officers use force against other rioters that day. Judge McFadden also said he believes Lee went to the Capitol on January 6 with the intent of disrupting Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Attorney Terrell Roberts III said the assault charge in this case only applies to conduct that involves physical contact with the assault victim. Robert argued. Riot shields prevented physical contact between the smoking devices and the officers’ bodies.
“It is bad policy to send someone to prison when the evidence fails to prove each element of the crime,” he wrote before the trial.
Lee was indicted on seven charges. A judge found him guilty of two felony counts of interfering with police during a riot and assaulting, resisting or obstructing an officer, as well as misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and trespass.
But the judge also acquitted Lee of two misdemeanor counts of engaging in physical violence, saying Judge McFadden had not presented enough evidence to show Lee committed any acts of physical violence.
Police said Lee had been on administrative leave since shooting and killing a man who suspected of stabbing four people on July 22, 2023. The department said Lee had not performed duties as an officer since the shooting, but the unpaid suspension stemmed from his arrest on the charges on Jan. 6.
On the day of the shooting last year, officers responded to a report of a stabbing at a thrift store in Silver Spring, Maryland, and confronted a suspect armed with a meat cleaver. Police said the suspect ignored orders to drop the knife and lunged at Lee, leading officers to shoot and kill him.
Police said one of the four stabbing victims sustained serious injuries. He told reporters All of the victims were expected to survive the attack. He described it as “unprovoked.”
More than 1,400 people have been indicted on federal charges related to the Capitol attack. More than 900 of them have pleaded guilty, and more than 200 have been convicted after trials before a judge or jury.
Only two of the defendants in the January 6th trial have been acquitted of all charges: one, a Mexican man, was acquitted by Judge McFadden in a non-jury trial.
