OFFICER HAILED AS HERO TESTIFIES AT CAPITOL RIOT TRIAL
Recalls encounter with father, son who entered building
A police officer lauded for his bravery during the U.S. Capitol riot testified Monday that a man carrying a Confederate battle flag jabbed at him with the flagpole before joining the mob that chased him up a staircase.
In his first public testimony since the Jan. 6, 2021, siege, Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman described his encounter with the flagtoting Delaware man, Kevin Seefried, and his adult son, Hunter, at their trial on charges that they stormed the Capitol together.
Goodman has been hailed as a hero for leading a group of rioters away from the Senate chamber as senators and then-Vice President Mike Pence were being evacuated. Goodman also directed Sen. Mitt Romney, RUtah, to turn around and head away from the mob.
Goodman recalled seeing Kevin Seefried standing alone in an archway and telling him to leave. Instead, Seefried cursed at him and jabbed at the officer with the base end of the flagpole three or four times without making contact with him, Goodman said.
“He was very angry. Screaming. Talking loudly,” Goodman said. “Complete opposite of pleasant.”
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden is hearing testimony without a jury for the Seefrieds’ bench trial, which started Monday and is scheduled to resume today. The Seefrieds waived their right to a jury trial, which means McFadden will decide their cases.
Widely published photographs showed Kevin Seefried carrying a Confederate battle flag inside the Capitol after he and his son entered the building through a broken window.
The charges against both Kevin and Hunter Seefried include a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress for certifying Joe Biden’s victory over thenPresident Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
During the trial’s opening statements, defense attorneys said the Seefrieds never intended to interfere with the Electoral College vote count.
“Indeed, (Kevin Seefried) was not even aware that the electoral count was happening or was happening in the Capitol,” one of his lawyers, Elizabeth Mullin, told the judge.
After rioters chased Goodman up a set of stairs, another Capitol Police officer who confronted the mob near the Senate chamber recalled that Kevin Seefried asked, “Why are you protecting them?”
“I assumed he was talking about Congress,” Officer Brian Morgan testified.
Before his encounter with the mob inside the Capitol, Goodman joined other officers in trying to hold back rioters as they clashed with police outside the building.
“It was like something out of medieval times, with one huge force clashing with another opposing force,” Goodman said. “I’ve never seen anything like that ever.”
Goodman said he had to retreat inside the building after getting peppersprayed and exposed to tear gas deployed by police.
The Seefrieds aren’t charged with assaulting any officers.
Mullin conceded that Kevin Seefried is guilty of two misdemeanor charges that he knowingly entered a restricted building and illegally demonstrated in the Capitol.
Hunter Seefried, then 22, may have acted “stupidly” but didn’t intend to block Congress from certifying the election results, defense attorney Edson Bostic said.
The Seefrieds traveled to Washington from their home in Laurel, Del., to hear Trump’s speech at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6.