San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Former officer, lawmaker plead guilty in melee
A former Virginia police officer pleaded guilty Friday to storming the U.S. Capitol with another former officer who is scheduled to be tried next month on charges related to the riot.
Jacob Fracker, who was fired by the town of Rocky Mount, Va., after his arrest, has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, his attorney said. A date for his sentencing wasn’t immediately set.
Meanwhile, a former West Virginia state lawmaker also pleaded guilty Friday to his role in the riot. Derrick Evans was a Republican member of the House of Delegates but never served a day. Evans resigned after his arrest in January 2021, a month before the start of the legislative session.
Fracker pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress that convened on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify President Biden’s electoral victory. The felony charge is punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Fracker’s co-defendant, Thomas Robertson, has a trial scheduled to start on April 4. The town of Rocky Mount also fired Robertson after the Capitol siege.
Fracker and Robertson were off duty when they drove with a neighbor to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6. Fracker’s indictment says Robertson brought three gas masks for them to use.
After listening to speeches near the Washington Monument, Fracker, Robertson and the neighbor identified only as “Person A” walked toward the Capitol, donned the gas masks and joined the growing mob, according to the indictment. Robertson was carrying a large wooden stick and used it to impede Metropolitan Police Department officers who arrived to help Capitol police officers hold off the mob, the indictment says.
Fracker and Robertson posed for a photograph inside the Capitol during the attack and later posted about the riot on social media.
Robertson’s attorneys didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Friday. Robertson has been jailed since U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in July that he violated terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms.
Evans, the former West Virginia lawmaker, pleaded guilty to a civil disorder charge, punishable by up to five years in prison. Sentencing was set for June 22. Evans live-streamed himself at the Capitol while wearing a helmet.