Wyoming man gets federal sentence for role in Jan 6. Capitol riot

CASPER, Wyo. — A Wyoming resident was sentenced to over three years in federal prison after being convicted by a jury of charges stemming from his violent conduct at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Sixty-nine-year-old Bedford resident Douglas Harrington was sentenced by U.S. District Chief Judge James E. Boasberg to 40 months in prison, 24 months of supervised release, and payment of $2,000 in restitution, according to the release by the U.S. Justice Department on Monday.

Over 1,500 people have been charged for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol. Then-President Donald Trump had earlier told 53,000 of his supporters to “fight like hell” as the House and Senate gathered to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election that Trump had lost.

Trial evidence showed Harrington approaching a line of police officers on the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol grounds and striking at them with a flagpole. Harrington struck one officer near the left hand and wrist and on the helmet, continuing to swing the flagpole toward the police line two more times before retreating into the crowd, the release said.

After the flagpole attack, Harrington and other rioters lifted a large, flat, opaque piece of material in front of the police line and walked with it held up in front of the officers, thereby blocking the officers’ view and impeding their ability to defend from the advancing crowd. When officers pushed back the crowd, the defendant grabbed at an officer’s baton, and he tried to shove an officer by pushing on a riot shield.

Additional officers soon arrived and reinforced the police. Officers then began to remove rioters from the Capitol; however, Harrington resisted. Harrington sat on the short row of steps in front of the police line as the officers began to move closer to the crowd and forcibly pressed his back into the officers. Police eventually removed Harrington from the Capitol grounds less than 15 minutes before the D.C. Mayor’s Curfew order went into effect.

– U.S. Justice Department

Following the events of Jan. 6, the FBI combed the numerous open-source videos filmed and posted by the rioters themselves to identify suspects, including the subject initially identified as BOLO 470-AFO, who was wearing a cowboy hat, goggles and a gas mask and was carrying the flagpole. The FBI sought public help identifying the man, and Harrington was eventually identified, according to the release.

The FBI said the confidential source was not personally familiar with Harrington but had used the open-source video. Investigators linked the masked rioter to the images of Harrington unmasked by identifying distinct articles of clothing.

The FBI arrested Harrington on Aug. 8, 2023.

Harrington was convicted of two felonies: civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers. He was also convicted of five misdemeanors:

• Entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds
• Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds
• Engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds
• Disorderly conduct in a Capitol building
• Act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings