WASHINGTON – Bruno Cua, an 18-year-old from Milton, Georgia, was already facing serious charges when he was arrested on February 6 in connection with the US Capitol insurrection a month earlier. He was accused not only of illegally entering the Capitol, but also of assaulting the police and obstructing Congressional efforts to certify the presidential election, which are serious crimes.
But it only got worse for Cua when a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, brought an indictment four days later. On top of the original set of charges, the grand jury raised the misdemeanor charges he faced for entering the Capitol for crimes, citing evidence that he carried a “deadly and dangerous weapon” – in his case, a baton. The addition of an “improved weapons” meant that the maximum sentence he faced for these charges increased tenfold, from one year in prison to ten.
Cua is one of an increasing number of defendants accused in the insurrection, seeing their crime counts – and potential jail time – accumulate as the investigation proceeds. Other defendants only accused of misdemeanors when they were arrested now face post-indictment crimes. Acting US Attorney Michael Sherwin in Washington told reporters a week after the attack on the Capitol that the first rounds of misdemeanor arrests were “just the beginning” and promised more “significant charges” as soon as prosecutors brought these cases to a close. a grand jury. New court documents in cases like Cua’s show how this is taking shape.
Of the more than 230 people indicted so far, at least 70 now face at least one charge – the most common being obstruction of Congress, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. More than 30 are charged with assault or interference with police and at least 14 are charged with possession or use of a weapon that day. The weapons identified in government lawsuits so far include knives, Tasers, a hockey stick, a large metal pipe, baseball bats, fire extinguishers and batons.
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Many more new cases are expected. Sherwin told reporters last month that the federal police opened more than 400 case files – a term that largely refers to the identification of people of interest – in connection with the investigation. A Justice Department spokesman told BuzzFeed News this week that the number of issue files was approximately 540.
Sherwin also previously announced that the Justice Department had formed special task forces aimed at building cases involving more serious criminal crimes, including police aggression, conspiracy against the United States and sedition and attacks on the media. No one has yet been charged with seditious conspiracy, a crime rarely invoked and which also carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, or assault on members of the press.
Prosecutors presented four cases of conspiracy, alleging that small groups of defendants acted together and, in some cases, planned the attack in advance; they left the door open to add more alleged co-conspirators in the future. Three of these cases involve defendants who prosecutors say are affiliated with the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group connected to past violent incidents, and the fourth involves alleged members of Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia organization that recruits mainly from current members and ex-military and police.
Prosecutors expanded the Oath Keepers conspiracy case this week from three defendants to nine. The Justice Department announced on Friday that a grand jury returned a new indictment adding six more people, including Kelly Meggs, the self-styled leader of an Oath Keepers chapter in Florida, and a retired Ohio couple, Bennie and Sandra Parker. The Parkers allegedly coordinated with a woman accused in the original Oath Keepers indictment, Jessica Watkins. Prosecutors cited text messages that Watkins exchanged with Bennie Parker before January 6, when the two discussed the Parkers’ joining the Oath Keepers, planning a trip to Washington and the possibility of carrying weapons. The Parkers’ indictment documents also included images of surveillance images inside the Capitol that prosecutors said showed Sandra Parker in a row, or “pile”, with Watkins and other Oath Keepers.
After the uprising, Watkins and Bennie Parker exchanged messages where they predicted they would not be arrested, according to the prosecution.
Exactly how much time these defendants could spend in prison if convicted depends on several factors and it is difficult to predict at the beginning. But these penalties are a way of understanding how seriously federal law treats the crimes they are accused of committing on January 6. It is one thing to enter the Capitol when it is not allowed, which in itself is a crime of misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in prison. Another thing is to enter the Capitol in order to prevent lawmakers from fulfilling their official duties – this is a crime with a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Other defendants who saw improvements in weapons added after being indicted include Douglas Jensen, an Iowa man seen in videos leading a crowd who chased US Capitol Officer Eugene Goodman inside the Capitol. Jensen was initially accused of several crimes, including obstruction of Congress and assaulting an officer, but no weapons-related crimes. He later admitted that he had a knife with him at the time; a photo of the knife placed next to a ruler included in government court documents showed that the blade was 7 centimeters long.
The grand jury returned a seven-count charge against Jensen on February 10. He was not accused of using the knife to hurt anyone, but the claim that it was in his pocket meant two counts of misdemeanor – entry into a restricted and disorderly building and disturbing conduct in a restricted building – became crimes.
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When Vitali Gossjankowski was arrested on January 18 in Washington, DC, he was accused of carrying a Taser when he illegally entered a restricted area near the entrance to the Capitol, meaning that he was already facing an increase in weapons. But he was not initially accused of actually using Taser against the police. That changed when a grand jury returned a charge on February 17, adding a charge of assault to a police officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon. Counting assaults carried a maximum penalty of eight years in prison, and the increase in weapons increased to 20 years.
Conspiracy charges show how prosecutors are starting to gather evidence from individual cases. William Pepe, from Beacon, New York, was arrested on January 12 on charges of contravening illegal entry to the Capitol. Three days later, Dominic Pezzola, who lives hundreds of miles away in Rochester, New York, was arrested on charges of obstructing Congress, destroying government property and illegally entering the Capitol; prosecutors presented photos of Pezzola breaking a window using a riot shield from the United States Capitol Police.
On January 29, a grand jury returned an 11-count charge that accused the two men of conspiracy, claiming that they were both members of the Proud Boys. The prosecution accused Pepe and Pezzola (whom prosecutors said they were also known as “Spaz” and “Spazzo”) of joining other members of the Proud Boys on their way to Capitol Hill. Prosecutors left open the possibility of adding more co-conspirators later, claiming that Pezzola and Pepe were part of a group of Proud Boys and other “known and unknown individuals” involved in tearing down metal barriers that the Capitol Police put in place block access to Capitol grounds and assailants behind that security perimeter. The FBI said a witness told them that Pezzola was part of a group that had talked about how they “planned to kill every ‘m-fer’ they could,” including then Vice President Mike Pence “if they had the chance”.
Pezzola also faces more serious charges in the indictment in terms of jail time; he is accused of breaking a Capitol window, stealing a riot shield from the Capitol Police and obstructing Congress, which carry maximum sentences of 10, 15 and 20 years in prison, respectively. The FBI also found instructions on how to make weapons and bombs in your home.
On February 3, the grand jury returned an indictment alleging another conspiracy by the Proud Boys, this time involving Nicholas DeCarlo, who lives in Texas, and Nicholas Ochs, who lives in Hawaii and was described in charges as a founding member of State Chapter Proud. Boys who had a “Proud Boy” tattoo on their right arm. Like Pezzola and Pepe, DeCarlo and Ochs were originally charged separately, although prosecutors noticed that they were together on the Capitol.
In the prosecution, prosecutors alleged that the two men planned to come to DC to “stop, delay and hinder” Congressional certification of the Electoral College’s votes, and that they raised money online to finance the trip and publicize their itinerary. Once inside the Capitol, the government said it disfigured a door on the Capitol by writing the words “MURDER THE MEDIA” – DeCarlo and Ochs claimed they were at the Capitol as citizen journalists on behalf of “MT Media News” – and stole a pair of handcuffs plastic capitol of the Capitol Police.
The third Proud Boys conspiracy involves four people that prosecutors identified in videos and photos heading towards the Capitol and then entering the building with members of the Proud Boys. The prosecution’s papers indicate that Pepe, Ochs and DeCarlo are seen close to these defendants, but are not all accused together.
In the newly expanded Oath Keepers conspiracy case, prosecutors constructed much of the case based on messages that different alleged members of the conspiracy exchanged about planning to come to Washington on January 6. The government described Watkins and co-defendant Crowl as moving towards the Capitol “in an organized and practiced way” while using tactical equipment. Prosecutors also cited evidence that the defendants were communicating with each other and with other unidentified people during the rebellion – including through a walkie-talkie app that recorded messages – and also afterwards.
There are also some cases where the defendants have been indicted together, but are not facing a conspiracy charge. In a charge returned on January 29, but only opened this week, the grand jury brought together three defendants who did not seem to know each other before January 6 – Michael Lopatic Sr., Jeffrey Sabol and Peter Stager – but were all charged with assaulting or interfering with the same police officer outside the Capitol, referred to by the initials “BM” Lopatic and Sabol are also separately accused of attacking other police officers on the spot.