A retired Washington, D.C., police officer was convicted Monday of mendacity to authorities about leaking confidential info to the chief of the far-right Proud Boys.
U.S. District Decide Amy Berman Jackson convicted former Metropolitan Police Division Lt. Shane Lamond, who used to oversee the intelligence department of the police division’s Homeland Safety Bureau, of obstructing justice and making false statements after a trial and not using a jury.
Washington Metropolitan Police Division Lt. Shane Lamond departs federal courtroom after pleading not responsible to obstruction of justice and different prices, Friday, Could 19, 2023, in Washington.
Patrick Semansky / AP
Sentencing was scheduled for April 3 after Lamond was convicted on all 4 counts. He was charged with leaking info to then-Proud Boys nationwide chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was beneath investigation within the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner.
At his bench trial, Lamond testified that he had by no means supplied Tarrio with delicate police info. Tarrio testified as a witness for Lamond’s protection and mentioned he didn’t confess to Lamond about burning the banner and didn’t obtain any confidential info from him.
However the decide didn’t discover the testimony of both Lamond or Tarrio to be credible. Jackson mentioned the proof indicated that Lamond was not utilizing Tarrio as a supply after the banner burning.
“It was the other way around,” she mentioned.
The decide mentioned the string of messages that Lamond and Tarrio exchanged over the course of months revealed a sample: “Lamond and Tarrio talk, and Tarrio immediately disseminates what he learns,” Jackson mentioned.
She referred to Tarrio as an “awful witness” who was “flippant, grandiose and obnoxious” on the stand.
“He was one of the worst I’ve had the opportunity to sit next to during my tenure on the bench,” Jackson mentioned.
After the decision, protection lawyer Mark Schamel mentioned it was untimely to say if there can be an attraction.
“It’s unbelievably disappointing to see every single thing that Lt. Lamond did viewed through a lens to make it appear to be something other than it was,” Schamel mentioned outdoors the courtroom. “There is nothing disloyal about him at all, and it’s a sad day for him.”
Tarrio finally pleaded responsible to burning the banner stolen from a historic Black church in downtown Washington in December 2020.
He was later sentenced to 22 years in jail for his position within the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, a part of what prosecutors referred to as a plot to make use of drive preserve Donald Trump within the White Home after the 2020 election.
Lamond, who met Tarrio in 2019, had supervised the intelligence department of the police division’s Homeland Safety Bureau. He was liable for monitoring teams just like the Proud Boys once they got here to Washington.
Tarrio was arrested in Washington two days earlier than the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. The Miami resident wasn’t on the Capitol when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the constructing and interrupted the congressional depend of the electoral votes finalizing Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Prosecutors mentioned the trial proof proved Lamond tipped off Tarrio {that a} warrant for his arrest had been signed.
“Similarly, the defendant affirmatively advised Mr. Tarrio in a written message that he was being asked to identify him for a warrant, a warning obviously in contemplation of the subsequent prosecution and with obvious ramifications for it,” prosecutors wrote.
Lamond’s indictment says he and Tarrio exchanged messages in regards to the Jan. 6 riot and mentioned whether or not Proud Boys members have been at risk of being charged within the assault.
“Of course I can’t say it officially, but personally I support you all and don’t want to see your group’s name and reputation dragged through the mud,” Lamond wrote.
Lamond mentioned he was upset {that a} prosecutor labeled him as a Proud Boys “sympathizer” who acted as a “double agent” for the group after Tarrio burned a stolen Black Lives Matter banner in December 2020.
“I don’t support the Proud Boys, and I’m not a Proud Boys sympathizer,” Lamond testified.
Lamond mentioned he thought of Tarrio to be a supply, not a pal. However he mentioned he tried to construct a pleasant rapport with the group chief to realize his belief.
Justice Division prosecutor Joshua Rothstein pointed to messages that counsel Lamond supplied Tarrio with “real-time updates” on the police investigation of the Dec. 12, 2020, banner burning.
Lamond, 48, of Colonial Seashore, Virginia, was charged with one depend of obstruction of justice and three counts of creating false statements. He retired in Could 2023 after 23 years of service to the police division.
Extra from CBS Information
