The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a superseding indictment with additional charges against two Minnesota brothers who said they acted to protect dying protester Rosanne Boyland from police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors added one count of civil disorder, a felony that carries a maximum prison term of five years. The indictment alleges that Mr. James obstructed Capitol Police during a civil disorder between 2:42 and 2:44 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.
The original indictment charged Mr. James and his brother, Isaac Westbury, 21, also of Lindstrom, with civil disorder against Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) between 4:17 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
The superseding indictment also adds a dangerous-weapon enhancement to the charge against both men for allegedly engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds. The enhancement changes the maximum prison time for the charge from one year to 10.
Roger Roots, an attorney who represents the men in the criminal case, says that calling a riot shield a deadly weapon is a stretch.
“Of course, the government’s notions that a plastic shield is a ‘deadly and dangerous weapon’ are quite a reach,” Mr. Roots told The Epoch Times in an email. “We may seek to dismiss the new charges in the near future.”
Mr. James and Mr. Westbury told The Epoch Times in a Dec. 23 interview that they picked up the acrylic riot shields in an effort to protect Ms. Boyland from bear repellant—a potent type of pepper spray—directed at her rescuers by police inside the Lower West Terrace tunnel.
Video shows that while Mr. James and Mr. Westbury ducked behind riot shields at the police line, streams of chemical irritants were shot overhead, raining down where Ms. Boyland was receiving CPR. Ms. Boyland later died at a local hospital.
“I pushed my way up to the front. I was going to cut across, and I saw these shields on the ground,” Mr. James told The Epoch Times. “So I thought, ‘We’ll just block this waterfall, the stream of mace coming down.’
“So reached into the tunnel, grabbed a shield off the ground, slipped into [Isaac’s] hands, pushed him in front of the tunnel. And then myself, I grabbed it up myself and we stood there.”
Mr. Westbury was struck in the face by pepper spray, forcing him to drop the shield. Another man picked up the shield and took his place next to Mr. James. A few minutes later, Mr. James was struck in the face with pepper spray and had to retreat from the scene.
The superseding indictment combines the cases of four defendants from the Westbury family: Mr. James, Isaac Westbury, Robert Westbury, 64, and Jonah Westbury, 28, all of Lindstrom.
The 11-count indictment includes 25 charges against the four family members, who are slated for a February trial in federal court in Washington.
Mr. James was critical of the FBI for the two raids it conducted at the family home some 35 miles northeast of Minneapolis. He compared its tactics to the close-quarters combat he learned in the U.S. Navy, while a fleet marine force corpsman who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“They used those same tactics and those same weapons on us that we’ve used overseas in a combat zone,” he said. “They brought that to this neighborhood.”
“This guy was kitted up like he was in Iraq or Afghanistan,“ Mr. James said. ”They were stacked up, lights on the rifle. He had the EOTECH sight on it. He was ready to go and do a close-quarter combat clear in our house. Kick a door and clear the door. Move on. Kick a door and clear the door. Move on.”
