A federal judge found an Energy Department contract engineer not guilty of trespassing and disorderly conduct in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, saying the defendant plausibly argued that police officers allowed him into the building.
U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, a 2017 Donald Trump appointee who served in his administration’s Justice Department, acquitted Matthew Martin of Santa Fe of four misdemeanor counts of trespassing and disorderly conduct in a bench trial — handing the Justice Department its first defeat in a Capitol breach prosecution.
Ruling from the bench after a trial lasting a day and a half, McFadden said that while U.S. prosecutors had shown that Martin “more likely than not knew he was not supposed to go in” to the Capitol, the actions of police created a reasonable doubt of his mind-set.
McFadden disputed that last claim, citing inconclusive video. But he said Martin’s stated interpretation of officers’ actions at the door, in which they allowed members of a shouting crowd to enter, was enough to create a reasonable doubt for a jury despite blaring door alarms, the doors’ shattered windows and signs of people in distress from police-deployed chemical spray.“Count one is a close call, but under our system of justice, close calls go to the defendant,” McFadden said.
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