In a recent trial regarding a supposed January 6 rioter, the defendant claimed that he thought police allowed him into an entrance near the Capitol Rotunda. The presiding judge saw fit to acquit him, setting an interesting precedent for future trials.

From Politico. A judge has issued the first outright acquittal of a defendant charged in the Capitol riot.

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Following a two-day bench trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, New Mexico engineer Matthew Martin was acquitted Wednesday on four misdemeanor charges by U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden. Martin claimed that he thought the police had allowed him into an entrance near the Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 6, 2021.

McFadden said that, based on video of the scene, that assertion was at least “plausible” and that prosecutors failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“People were streaming by and the officers made no attempt to stop the people,” said the judge, an appointee of President Donald Trump….

Martin, who became the first Jan. 6 defendant to testify in his own defense, said he believed that an officer waved him into the Rotunda lobby at about 3 p.m. that day.

McFadden said that he did not believe that, but that the way the officer briefly interrupted the flow of people and then stepped back to allow it to resume could have given Martin that impression.

“I do think the defendant reasonably believed the officers allowed him into the Capitol,” the judge said.

McFadden stressed that he wasn’t criticizing the officers, who he said “were grossly outnumbered at that point.”

“I think they acted responsibly and reasonably throughout,” the judge said.

However, the verdict could be viewed as a message from McFadden to prosecutors that pursuing criminal charges against nearly every demonstrator who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 was unwise and that resources should have been trained more intensely on those accused of violence or of conspiring to block the electoral vote count.

McFadden called Martin’s conduct “about as minimal and not serious as I can imagine” among Jan. 6 defendants.

Martin faced charges of entering and remaining in a restricted area set up for a Secret Service protectee, disorderly conduct in such an area, disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds and parading or demonstrating in the Capitol.

The judge said that after Martin went inside, he generally milled around and stayed away from areas in the Rotunda where some demonstrators were taunting and skirmishing with police….

McFadden also said that while Martin was in the Capitol, he spent much of the time making videos with his phone, which the judge said wasn’t much different than what members of the press were doing….

McFadden’s verdict is the latest in a series of rulings from the Trump-appointed judge that have disappointed prosecutors and broken sharply from colleagues on the U.S. District Court in Washington.

McFadden has repeatedly given short probation sentences to Jan. 6 defendants who the Justice Department has said deserved jail time. And he has questioned the merit of some of the misdemeanor cases that the department has brought against some nonviolent defendants in the Jan. 6 mob.

The ruling also highlights claims by dozens of Jan. 6 rioters that they believed they had permission to enter the Capitol because of the actions of the U.S. Capitol Police. Leaders there said the police department made decisions early in the day to focus on protecting lawmakers and securing the complex rather than arresting rioters, a decision that has resulted in the nationwide manhunt for hundreds of defendants that continues to this day….

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(Excerpt from Politico. Photo Credit: MIKE STOLL on Unsplash)