{"id":41564,"date":"2022-03-22T13:03:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T19:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/official-guilty-of-illegally-entering-capitol-grounds-jan-6\/"},"modified":"2022-03-22T19:03:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T19:03:07","slug":"official-guilty-of-illegally-entering-capitol-grounds-jan-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/official-guilty-of-illegally-entering-capitol-grounds-jan-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Official guilty of illegally entering Capitol grounds Jan. 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Otero
Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin gestures as he speaks outside the federal court after receiving a verdict in his trial, Tuesday, March 22, 2022 in Washington. A federal judge has convicted Griffin of illegally entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds, but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct during the riot that disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden\u2019s presidential election victory. (Gemunu Amarasinghe\/Associated Press)<\/span>Gemunu Amarasinghe<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2013 A federal judge on Tuesday convicted an elected official from New Mexico of illegally entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct during the riot<\/a> that disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden\u2019s presidential election victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden heard one day of testimony without a jury on Monday before handing down a verdict in the misdemeanor case against Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin<\/a>, a 48-year-old former rodeo rider who helped found a group called Cowboys for Trump.<\/p>\n

McFadden, a nominee of then-President Donald Trump, said there was ample evidence that Griffin knew he was in a restricted area and didn\u2019t leave. Griffin crossed over three walls, needing help from others or a ladder to get over them, the judge noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this would suggest to a normal person that perhaps you should not be entering the area,\u201d McFadden said from the bench.<\/p>\n

But the judge said prosecutors didn\u2019t meet their burden to prove that Griffin engaged in disorderly conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cArguably, he was trying to calm people down, not rile them up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Griffin\u2019s trial in Washington, D.C., was the second among the hundreds of federal cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, siege. Earlier this month, in the first trial, a jury convicted a Texas man<\/a>, Guy Wesley Reffitt, of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun, interfering with police and obstructing Congress\u2019 joint session to certify the Electoral College vote.<\/p>\n

The outcome of Griffin\u2019s trial could have a ripple effect, helping other Capitol riot defendants decide whether to let a judge or a jury decide their case.<\/p>\n

But the case against Griffin is unlike most Jan. 6 cases and may not be a bellwether for defendants who are charged with storming the Capitol.<\/p>\n

Griffin is one of the few riot defendants who wasn\u2019t accused of entering the Capitol building or engaging in any violent or destructive behavior. His lawyers argued that he was selectively prosecuted for his political views.<\/p>\n

Griffin was charged with two misdemeanors: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds. Both carry maximum sentences of one year imprisonment.<\/p>\n

Griffin is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17. He was jailed for more than two weeks after his arrest on Jan. 19, 2021.<\/p>\n

Griffin described himself as \u201chalfway pleased\u201d with the split verdict and said he will continue to view his involvement in Jan. 6 as \u201ca badge of honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI stand proud of where I\u2019m at today and the fight that I\u2019ve been in over the course of the last year-and-a-half,\u201d he told reporters outside the courthouse.<\/p>\n

Griffin, one of three members of the Otero County Commission in southern New Mexico, is among a handful of riot defendants who either held public office or ran for a government leadership post in the 2\u00bd years before the attack.<\/p>\n

He is among only three riot defendants who have asked for a bench trial, in which judges decide a case without a jury. Griffin said he doesn\u2019t regret waiving his right to a jury trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was anywhere but Washington, D.C., I would say, \u2018Go with a jury trial,\u2019\u201d Griffin said. \u201dYou can\u2019t get a fair jury trial in Washington, D.C., if you\u2019re someone like me, a strong conservative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson said the conviction for entering restricted grounds helps establish for the government that the area was off limits to the public and will discourage other defendants from using similar arguments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will send a message to other defendants that they are unlikely to win on a technical argument that the areas outside the Capitol were not off limits,\u201d Levenson said.<\/p>\n

The verdicts also may lead some defendants facing the same charges as Griffin to go to trial if they believe the judge deciding their fate has a high standard of what constitutes disorderly conduct, Levenson said. Still, Levenson said the argument wouldn\u2019t be helpful to defendants who entered the Capitol building or committed violence on Capitol grounds.<\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Janani Iyengar said Griffin climbed over metal bike racks, up a plywood ramp and shouted over the crowd about his belief that the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was being extremely loud, climbing over barriers, engaging with the crowd,\u201d she said in her closing arguments.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Nicholas Smith said the case against Griffin was \u201cbuilt on a series of false assumptions and premises.\u201d Trial testimony showed Griffin went to the Capitol to support \u201cfree and fair elections,\u201d Smith told the judge.<\/p>\n

A key question in Griffin\u2019s case was whether he entered a restricted area while Vice President Pence was still present on Capitol grounds, a prerequisite for the U.S. Secret Service to invoke access restrictions.<\/p>\n

Griffin\u2019s attorneys said in a court filing that Pence had already departed the restricted area before the earliest that Griffin could have entered it, but Secret Service inspector Lanelle Hawa testified that Pence never left the restricted area during the riot.<\/p>\n

Hawa said agents took Pence from his office at the Capitol to a secure location at an underground loading dock on the Capitol complex. Pence remained in the loading dock location for four to five hours, until the joint session of Congress resumed on the night of Jan. 6, Hawa testified.<\/p>\n

Smith said prosecutors apparently believe Griffin engaged in disorderly conduct by peacefully leading a prayer on the Capitol steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is offensive and wrong,\u201d Smith told the judge during his brief opening statements.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors didn\u2019t give any opening statements. Their first witness was Matthew Struck, who joined Griffin at the Capitol and served as his videographer. Struck has an immunity deal with prosecutors for his testimony.<\/p>\n

After attending Trump\u2019s \u201cStop the Steal\u201d rally<\/a> on Jan. 6, Griffin and Struck walked over barriers and up a staircase to enter a stage that was under construction on the Capitol\u2019s Lower West Terrace for Biden\u2019s inauguration, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors played video clips that showed Griffin moving through the mob that formed outside the Capitol, where police used pepper spray to quell rioters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the smell of napalm in the air,\u201d Griffin said in an apparent reference to a quote from the war movie \u201cApocalypse Now.\u201d<\/p>\n

After climbing over a stone wall and entering a restricted area outside the Capitol, Griffin said, \u201cThis is our house \u2026 we should all be armed,\u201d according to prosecutors. He called it \u201ca great day for America\u201d and added, \u201cThe people are showing that they have had enough,\u201d prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

In a court filing, prosecutors called Griffin \u201can inflammatory provocateur and fabulist who engages in racist invective and propounds baseless conspiracy theories, including that Communist China stole the 2020 Presidential Election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin\u2019s attorneys say hundreds if not thousands of other people did exactly what Griffin did on Jan. 6 and haven\u2019t been charged with any crimes.<\/p>\n

More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. More than 230 riot defendants have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors, and at least 127 of them have been sentenced. Approximately 100 others have trial dates.<\/p>\n

Griffin had vowed to arrive at the courthouse on horseback on Monday. Instead, he showed up as a passenger in a pickup truck that had a horse trailer on the back.<\/p>\n

\"Otero
Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin speaks to journalists as he leaves the federal court in Washington, Monday, March. 21, 2022. Griffin is charged with illegally entering Capitol grounds the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory on Jan. 6, 2021. (Gemunu Amarasinghe\/Associated Press)<\/span>Gemunu Amarasinghe<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Otero
Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin speaks to journalists as he leave federal court in Washington, Monday, March. 21, 2022. Griffin is charged with illegally entering Capitol grounds the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory on Jan. 6, 2021. (Gemunu Amarasinghe\/Associated Press)<\/span>Gemunu Amarasinghe<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Otero
Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin, arrives at the Federal Court House in Washington, Monday, March 21, 2022. Griffin is charged with illegally entering Capitol grounds the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory on Jan. 6, 2021. (Gemunu Amarasinghe\/Associated Press)<\/span>Gemunu Amarasinghe<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A vehicle used by Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin, arrives outside the Federal Court House in Washington, Monday, March. 21, 2022. Griffin is charged with illegally entering Capitol grounds the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory on Jan. 6, 2021. (Gemunu Amarasinghe\/Associated Press)<\/span>Gemunu Amarasinghe<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin gestures as he speaks outside the federal court after receiving a verdict in his trial, Tuesday, March 22, 2022 in Washington. A federal judge has convicted Griffin of illegally entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds, but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct during the riot that disrupted Congress […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815,28,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico","tag-headlines","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41564"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}