Over a year ago, two off-duty police officers from a small town in Virginia were charged with storming the U.S. Capitol together. A trial for one of them starts this week. The other could be a key prosecution witness.
The trial of former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson will be the third among hundreds of people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The first two trials both ended with convictions, although one of those defendants was acquitted of a disorderly conduct charge.
Robertson is charged with six counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. Tam Dinh Pham, an off-duty Houston police officer on Jan. 6, was sentenced in December to 45 days imprisonment after pleading guilty to a riot-related misdemeanour. A trial is scheduled to start on April 25 for Thomas Webster, a retired New York City police officer charged with assaulting an officer at the Capitol. Former North Miami Beach police officer Nicholes Lentz, who also pleaded guilty to a riot-related misdemeanour, is scheduled to be sentenced May 10.
After the riot, Robertson posted a string of Facebook messages that were "illustrative of a sincere commitment to violence," prosecutors said. In a Jan. 8 post, Robertson wrote, “Being nice, polite, writing letters and sending emails hasn’t worked.” Robertson was arrested a week after the riot and initially released from custody. But he has been jailed since U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in July that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms.
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