NYPD veteran convicted of assaulting officer in Capitol riot

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal jury on Monday convicted a New York Police Department veteran of assaulting an officer through the U.S. Capitol riot, rejecting his claim that he was defending himself when he tackled the officer and grabbed his gas mask.

Thomas Webster, a 20-year NYPD veteran, was the first Capitol riot defendant to be tried on an assault cost and the first to present a jury with a self-defense argument.

Jurors deliberated for less than three hours earlier than they convicted Webster of all six counts in his indictment, together with a charge that he assaulted Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathbun with a harmful weapon, a steel flagpole. The assault charge alone is punishable by up to 20 years in jail, although sentencing tips seemingly will recommend a considerably shorter jail term.

Webster, 56, testified that he was making an attempt to protect himself from a “rogue cop” who punched him in the face. He additionally accused Rathbun of instigating the confrontation.

Rathbun testified that he didn’t punch or choose a fight with Webster as a violent mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, disrupting Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over then-President Donald Trump.

Two jurors who spoke to reporters after the verdict stated movies capturing the officer’s assault from multiple angles have been crucial evidence rebutting Webster’s self-defense argument.

“I suppose we have been all shocked that he would even make that protection argument,” stated a juror who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There was no dissention amongst us in any respect. We unanimously agreed that there was no self-defense argument right here at all.”

Another juror, who additionally spoke on situation of anonymity, said Webster’s self-defense declare “simply didn’t stack up.”

U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta is scheduled to sentence Webster on Sept. 2.

Webster’s jury trial was the fourth for a Capitol riot case. The primary three defendants to get a jury trial additionally have been convicted of all costs in their respective indictments. A judge decided two other circumstances with no jury, acquitting one of the defendants and partially acquitting the other.

Webster, who wore a masks in courtroom, showed no apparent response to the verdict.

“We’re disenchanted,” protection lawyer James Monroe mentioned after the verdict, “but we acknowledged from the start that folk here (in Washington, D.C.) had been fairly traumatized by what transpired on Jan. 6. And I feel we saw a few of this expressed immediately.”

Prosecutors requested for Webster to be detained, however the decide agreed to let him stay free till his sentencing. He’ll continue to be monitored with an ankle bracelet. The choose mentioned it was a “shut name” whether to jail him instantly but famous that he has complied with present circumstances of release and doesn’t have any prior convictions.

Webster drove alone to Washington from his house near Goshen, New York, on the eve of the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally. He was sporting a bulletproof vest and carrying a U.S. Marine Corps flag on a metal pole when he approached the Capitol, after listening to Trump tackle thousands of supporters.

Webster said he went to the Capitol to “petition” lawmakers to “relook” at the results of the 2020 presidential election. But he testified that he didn’t intend to intrude with Congress’ joint session to certify the Electoral School vote.

Rathbun’s body digital camera captured Webster shouting profanities and insults earlier than they made any bodily contact. Webster mentioned he was attending his first political protest as a civilian and expressing his free speech rights when he yelled at officers behind a row of motorbike racks.

The body digital camera video exhibits that Webster slammed one of many bike racks at Rathbun earlier than the officer reached out with an open left hand and struck the suitable aspect of Webster’s face. Webster said it felt as though he had been hit by a freight prepare.

“It was a tough hit, and all I needed to do was defend myself,” Webster mentioned.

Rathbun mentioned he was trying to move Webster again from a security perimeter that he and other officers had been struggling to maintain.

After Rathbun struck his face, Webster swung a metal flag pole at the officer in a downward chopping movement, striking a bike rack. Rathbun grabbed the broken pole from Webster, who charged on the officer, tackled him to the bottom and grabbed his gas masks.

Rathbun testified that he began choking because the chin strap on his fuel masks pressed towards his throat. Webster stated he grabbed Rathbun by the fuel masks as a result of he needed the officer to see his arms.

Rathbun reported a hand injury from a separate encounter with a rioter inside the Capitol. He didn’t report any accidents caused by Webster, but jurors noticed photos of leg bruises that Rathbun attributed to his confrontation with the retired officer.

Webster faced counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer using a harmful weapon; civil dysfunction; getting into and remaining in restricted grounds with a dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in restricted grounds with a harmful weapon; engaging in physical violence in restricted grounds with a harmful weapon; and fascinating in an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds.

Webster retired from the NYPD in 2011 after 20 years of service, which included a stint on then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s private security detail. He served within the U.S. Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989 before joining the NYPD in 1991.

More than 780 folks have been charged with riot-related federal crimes. The Justice Department says more than 245 of them have been charged with assaulting or impeding regulation enforcement. More than 100 officers had been injured.

Two other defendants testified at their trials. Dustin Byron Thompson, an Ohio man who was convicted by a jury of obstructing Congress from certifying Biden’s presidential victory, mentioned he was following orders from Trump. A choose hearing testimony with no jury acquitted Matthew Martin, a New Mexico man who mentioned outnumbered police officers allowed him and others to enter the Capitol via the Rotunda doorways.

Two riot defendants didn’t testify at their trials earlier than jurors convicted them of all expenses, including interfering with officers. One in every of them, Thomas Robertson, was an off-duty police officer from Rocky Mount, Virginia. The opposite, Texas resident Man Wesley Reffitt, additionally was convicted of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun.

U.S. District Choose Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee who acquitted Martin of all prices, additionally presided over a bench trial for New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin. McFadden convicted Griffin of illegally getting into restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of partaking in disorderly conduct.