Fontana resident pleads guilty

Daniel Rodriguez, 40, admits to using stun gun on police officer during Jan. 6, 2021, siege

A Fontana man who used a stun gun on a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and later bragged about it on a group chat admitted Tuesday to multiple criminal charges.

Daniel Rodriguez, 40, during a hearing in a federal courtroom in Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Shortly after his March 2021 arrest, an apparently tearful Rodriguez during an FBI interview admitted to tasing Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone, according to a transcript of the interview that was later filed with the court.

Fanone, during media interviews, has described members of a mob looting his ammunition, police radio and badge and then threatening to kill him as he lay on the steps of the Capitol.

Rodriguez repeatedly told the FBI agents “I’m so stupid” during the interview, the transcript shows, and when asked why he assaulted the officer responded by saying “I don’t know, I’m a piece of (expletive). I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

Prosecutors alleged that Rodriguez — along with Edward Badalian of North Hills — created a group chat on the Telegram app called “Patriots 45 MAGA Gang” and used it to advocate violence against “certain groups and individuals” who “supported” the results of the 2020 presidential election and who held “liberal or communist ideologies” or “positions of authority in government.”

Rodriguez was also involved in collecting weapons and tactical gear to bring to Washington D.C. and coordinating with others before, during and after the riot, according to prosecutors.

In his FBI interview, Rodriguez — a former Panorama City resident — described himself as a devoted follower of then-president Donald Trump who came to believe after Trump’s loss that the election had been stolen and the country was on the verge of “civil war.”

On Jan. 6, 2021, Rodriguez joined a crowd of thousands of protrump supporters who breached the Capitol in a violent but ultimately failed attempt to halt the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

According to a “statement of offense” filed along with his plea deal, Rodriguez admitted to using a “small, black electroshock weapon” another rioter handed him to shock Fanone in the back of the neck. He also admitted to encouraging other rioters to “look for intel” in the U.S. Capitol building and rifling through papers left on desks in the building before leaving when officers began to clear the rooms.

After leaving the Capitol, Rodriguez allegedly wrote postings on the “Patriots 45” chat in which he bragged “OMG I did so much (expletive) and got away” and “Tazzzzzed the (expletive) out of the blue.”

Rodriguez later referenced “mob mentality” in his interview with the FBI, explaining that “My story is we thought that we were going to save America, and we were wrong.”

Rodriguez is among the most high-profile defendants from the more than two-dozen people who have been charged in connection to the Jan. 6 Insurrection. More than a dozen people across the region have admitted to their roles in the breach of the U.S. Capitol over the past year, with most pleading guilty to charges that amount to trespassing in restricted areas and getting short stints behind bars or supervised release and community service.

At least one other Southern Californiabased defendant has been accused of attacking officers during the events of Jan. 6. Jeffrey Scott Brown, a Santa Ana resident, was among three rioters convicted of assaulting a police officer by using pepper spray on an officer whose gas mask had been ripped off while he struggled to hold back the crowd.

Rodriguez is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on May 16. Badalian — his co-defendant, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges — is scheduled to go to trial at the end of the month.