WASHINGTON — A Maine man was sentenced to more than four years in prison Monday after he previously pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement with a weapon during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Christopher Maurer, 45, formerly of Biddeford, received a 50-month prison sentence and 24 months of supervised release. U.S. District Chief Judge James E. Boasberg also ordered Maurer to pay $2,000 in restitution.
On July 23, Maurer pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He originally faced three counts of assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon and one count each of civil disorder, entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a restricted building, violence in a restricted building, impeding passage through Capitol grounds and engaging in physical violence on Capitol grounds.
Court documents state that on Jan. 6, 2021, Maurer was among a crowd of rioters who amassed on the Lower West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol building near an area known as the Tunnel — which federal prosecutors said was the site of some of the most violent attacks against law enforcement officers that day.
According to court documents, Maurer entered the Tunnel and made his way to the front of the police line. He then confronted a group of police officers who were preventing further access to the Capitol. Prosecutors said Maurer grabbed onto a police riot shield being used by an officer and attempted to rip it away, and he also attempted to use his body to push against officers in the Tunnel and left after about eight minutes.
Court documents state Maurer later returned to the Tunnel entrance and added his body weight, force and momentum to a coordinated "heave-ho" push against the police line and grabbed onto a canister of chemical irritant held by another rioter. Maurer also helped another rioter deploy chemical irritant from a stolen police-issued canister of pepper spray, prosecutors said.
A short while later, Maurer returned and threw two stick-like objects at the line of police officers while repeatedly extending his middle finger to the police and yelling obscenities, according to court documents. One of the stick-like objects ricocheted off the Tunnel wall and struck a police officer in the helmet.
Prosecutors said Maurer also used a cellphone cord that he then whipped at officers inside the Tunnel.
Maurer was arrested in Maine by the FBI on Feb. 22, 2023.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said in the 46 months since the Capitol riot, more than 1,560 people have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach. That number includes more than 590 people who were charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
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