NYPD veteran convicted of assaulting officer in Capitol riot

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

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

Jurors deliberated for lower than three hours before they convicted Webster of all six counts in his indictment, including a charge that he assaulted Metropolitan Police Division officer Noah Rathbun with a dangerous weapon, a metallic flagpole. The assault cost alone is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, although sentencing tips doubtless will suggest a considerably shorter jail time period.

Webster, 56, testified that he was trying to guard himself from a “rogue cop” who punched him in the face. He also accused Rathbun of instigating the confrontation.

Rathbun testified that he didn’t punch or choose a combat 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 a number of angles have been essential evidence rebutting Webster’s self-defense argument.

“I assume we had been all shocked that he would even make that defense argument,” stated a juror who spoke on situation of anonymity. “There was no dissention among us at all. We unanimously agreed that there was no self-defense argument here at all.”

Another juror, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, mentioned Webster’s self-defense declare “simply didn’t stack up.”

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

Webster’s jury trial was the fourth for a Capitol riot case. The first three defendants to get a jury trial also were convicted of all fees in their respective indictments. A choose determined two other cases with no jury, acquitting one of many defendants and partially acquitting the opposite.

Webster, who wore a mask in court, confirmed no obvious response to the decision.

“We’re upset,” defense lawyer James Monroe said after the decision, “however we recognized from the beginning that folk here (in Washington, D.C.) were quite traumatized by what transpired on Jan. 6. And I believe we saw a few of this expressed today.”

Prosecutors asked for Webster to be detained, but the choose agreed to let him remain free till his sentencing. He’ll proceed to be monitored with an ankle bracelet. The decide said it was a “close name” whether to jail him immediately however noted 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 wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a U.S. Marine Corps flag on a steel pole when he approached the Capitol, after listening to Trump address hundreds of supporters.

Webster stated he went to the Capitol to “petition” lawmakers to “relook” on the results of the 2020 presidential election. However he testified that he didn’t intend to interfere with Congress’ joint session to certify the Electoral College vote.

Rathbun’s body digicam captured Webster shouting profanities and insults earlier than they made any bodily contact. Webster stated 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 motorcycle racks.

The body digital camera video exhibits that Webster slammed one of the bike racks at Rathbun before the officer reached out with an open left hand and struck the correct facet of Webster’s face. Webster mentioned it felt as if he had been hit by a freight practice.

“It was a hard hit, and all I wanted to do was defend myself,” Webster stated.

Rathbun said he was making an attempt to move Webster again from a security perimeter that he and different officers were struggling to keep up.

After Rathbun struck his face, Webster swung a steel flag pole at the officer in a downward chopping movement, hanging a motorbike rack. Rathbun grabbed the broken pole from Webster, who charged at the officer, tackled him to the ground and grabbed his gas mask.

Rathbun testified that he started choking as the chin strap on his fuel mask pressed against 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 contained in the Capitol. He didn’t report any injuries caused by Webster, however jurors noticed photographs 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; coming into and remaining in restricted grounds with a dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in restricted grounds with a dangerous weapon; partaking in bodily violence in restricted grounds with a harmful weapon; and engaging 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 non-public security element. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989 earlier than becoming a member of the NYPD in 1991.

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

Two different 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 and not using a jury acquitted Matthew Martin, a New Mexico man who said outnumbered police officers allowed him and others to enter the Capitol through the Rotunda doors.

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

U.S. District Decide Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee who acquitted Martin of all fees, also presided over a bench trial for New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin. McFadden convicted Griffin of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct.