ARCHIVE – Violent insurgents loyal to President Donald Trump invade the Capitol, January 6, 2021, in Washington. Jacob Fracker, a former Virginia police officer, pleaded guilty on Friday, March 18, 2022, to invading the US Capitol with another former officer scheduled to stand trial next month on charges related to the insurgency. (AP Photo / John Minchillo, Archive) A federal court on Monday convicted a former Virginia police officer of invading the US Capitol with another off-duty officer to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Jurors also convicted former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson of six counts in connection with the January 6, 2021 uprising, including interfering with police in the Capitol and entering a restricted area with a dangerous weapon. big wooden stick. His sentencing hearing was not scheduled immediately. Robertson’s jury trial was the second of hundreds of riots in the Capitol. The first ended last month with jurors convicting a Texas man, Guy Refit, of all five charges in his indictment. Robertson did not testify at his trial, which began last Tuesday. The jurors discussed for several hours two days before reaching their unanimous verdict. A juror, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said as she left the courtroom: “I think the government has made a really exciting case and the evidence has been overwhelming.” A key witness for prosecutors in his case was Jacob Fracker, who also served in the Rocky Mount Police Force and regarded Robertson as a mentor and paternal figure. Fracker was due to stand trial with Robertson before pleading guilty last month to conspiracy to commit collusion. Fracker testified Thursday that he hoped the mob that attacked the Capitol could overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Robertson was charged with six counts: obstructing Congress, interfering with officers during political unrest, entering a restricted area with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct or harassment in a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct or disorderly conduct. . The latter charge comes from the alleged destruction of cell phones belonging to him and Fracker after the uprising. During the final hearing on Friday, Assistant Attorney General Risa Berkower said Robertson had gone to Washington and joined a “violent mob” because he believed the election had been stolen by then-President Donald Trump. He used the wooden stick to intervene with the few police officers before joining the crowd that poured into the Capitol, he said. “The accused did all this because he wanted to overthrow the election,” Berkower said. Defense attorney Mark Rollins admitted that Robertson broke the law when he entered the Capitol during the uprising. He encouraged jurors to convict Robertson of misdemeanors, but urged them to acquit Robertson of felony criminal mischief for using the stick as a dangerous weapon and for preventing Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote. “I had no plans to go down there and say, ‘I’m going to prevent Congress from doing this vote,’” Rollins said. Fracker testified that he initially thought he was simply breaking in when he entered the Capitol building. However, he eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring with Robertson to obstruct Congress. Under considerable scrutiny by Rollins, Fracker said he had no “verbal agreement” with anyone to block a joint congressional meeting. Fracker said he believed everyone in the crowd “had almost the same goal” and did not need to “say it out loud.” Robertson and Fracker drove with a neighbor to Washington on the morning of January 6th. Robertson brought three gas masks to use, according to prosecutors. After hearing speeches near the Washington Monument, Fracker, Robertson and a neighbor walked to the Capitol, put on gas masks and joined the growing crowd, prosecutors said. Robertson stopped to help his neighbor, who was having trouble breathing. Fracker broke into the building before Robertson, but they reunited inside the Capitol. Defense attorney Camille Wagner told jurors that Robertson went to the Capitol only because he wanted to retrieve Fracker, who entered the Capitol a few minutes before Robertson. Wagner said the U.S. Army veteran used the wand to help him walk because he was limping from a gunshot wound to the right thigh while working as a private contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense in Afghanistan in 2011. Jurors saw some of Robertson’s spontaneous postings on social media before and after the Capitol Uprising. In a Facebook post on November 7, 2020, Robertson said, “My hard line is fraud because of fraud.” “I have spent most of my adult life fighting insurgency. “(I am) ready to be part of one and very effective,” he wrote. U.S. Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Aloe told jurors Robertson was charged with his actions, not his political beliefs. Wagner also said that Robertson should be judged by his actions and not by his words. The city fired Robertson and Fracker after the uprising. Rocky Mount is located about 25 miles south of Roanoke and has about 5,000 inhabitants. Robertson has been in prison since Cooper ruled in July that he had violated the terms of his pre-trial release by possessing firearms. More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the uprising. More than 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Robertson’s trial is one of four so far for those accused of rioting at the Capitol. Two others had decided their cases from a trial before the same judge. U.S. District Attorney Trevor McFadden last month convicted New Mexico’s elected official, Couy Griffin, of trespassing on Capitol Stadium, but acquitted him of disorderly conduct. On Wednesday, McFadden acquitted another New Mexico man, Matthew Martin, of all four charges.
