A Grapevine resident has been convicted of six charges involving events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Larry Brock, 55, was found guilty on November 16 of felony obstruction of an official proceeding. He was also convicted of several misdemeanors, including entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct in the Capitol building.
Rather than a jury trial, Brock opted for a bench trial before U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Brock was one of the first people arrested in connection to the January 6 events after he turned himself in to the FBI in Grapevine on January 10, 2021.
Prosecutors said Brock — a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel — reportedly entered the Senate chamber wearing a helmet and tactical vest and walked around inside for eight minutes, rifling through senators’ desks.
Brock reportedly entered the Capitol through the Senate wing doors and moved through various parts of the building, including the crypt and the rotunda. According to the DOJ, he picked up a pair of discarded flex-cuffs near the rotunda and kept them on his person.
Brock was inside the Capitol building for a total of 37 minutes, according to the DOJ.
His defense attorneys argued that Brock was unaware that he was not permitted to be inside the Capitol building.
As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez observed in July 2022, evidence suggests that Capitol Police officers had “open[ed] the doors wide open” and allowed the demonstrators to come into the building.
The DOJ said that on December 27, 2020, Brock posted to social media, “I prefer insurrection at this point.” On January 5, he posted, “Our second American Revolution begins in less than two days.”
In a previous interview with The New Yorker, however, Brock claimed he traveled to Washington to demonstrate peacefully.
“The president asked for his supporters to be there to attend, and I felt like it was important, because of how much I love this country, to actually be there,” he said, adding that he was part of no organized group, saw no violence on that day, and assumed he was permitted to enter the Capitol building.
Brock is set to be sentenced on February 14, 2023. The felony obstruction charge carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison and potential fines, according to the DOJ. The five misdemeanor offenses carry a combined statutory maximum of 3.5 years in prison, along with potential fines.
The DOJ said that, as of November 16, 2022, nearly 900 people had been arrested in nearly all 50 states for alleged crimes related to the events that occurred at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and investigations are ongoing.
As The Dallas Express has previously reported, the DOJ investigation has employed controversial methods such as “dragnet” geofence search warrants, and has been subject to claims of politicization.
And while hundreds of arrests have been made, certain individuals, such as Ray Epps, who can be seen in extensive video footage participating in the activity at the Capitol, have apparently not been targeted by the DOJ, as The Dallas Express has reported in the past.