Lebanon man indicted on 10 charges in Jan. 6 attack on Capitol

Kyle Fitzsimons ... Pictured in D.C. the day of the Capitol unrest. (Courtesy photo)

LEBANON, Maine - A Washington grand jury has indicted a Lebanon man in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The 10-count indictment charges Kyle Fitzsimons, 37, with obstruction of an official proceeding, 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 or grounds, act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings, two counts of civil disorder and two counts of inflicting bodily injury on certain officers.

The officers he is alleged to have attacked were not named. In an interview with The Rochester Voice two days after the attack he said he was struck on the head with a police officer's baton, but committed no violence except to defend himself after he was pushed to the front of a line that came face to face with police.

Fitzsimons, 37, waived his right to detention and probable cause hearings in Portland on Feb. 11.

Since then he has been held at the Donald Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island. It is expected he will soon be transferred to a DC jail while awaiting trial.

The information officer for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has still not returned a call from The Rochester Voice, despite several that were made in the past two weeks.

Fitzsimons, a husband and father of a one-year-old daughter, has yet to make a plea in the case. He faces more than 13 years in federal prison if convicted on all charges, which include assault on a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of enforcement and trespassing on federal property, namely the U.S. Capitol.

Fitzsimons told The Rochester Voice in a Jan. 11 article that he went to the Capitol not to stoke violence, but to protest voting irregularities and support President Trump in efforts to decertify what was seen by many - including a large number of state legislature in five swing states - as an election fraught with statistical anomalies, compromised voting machines and even video evidence that showed ballot counting irregularities.

In the article Fitzsimons said he was unwillingly swept up in a "horde of humanity" outside the Capitol that swept him toward a police line where he was struck on the head.

He said after he was struck he was helped by Good Samaritans who helped him get to a D.C. hospital where he received six stitches for a gash on his head.

He told much the same story to Lebanon selectmen on Jan. 7, a day after the unrest occurred at the Capitol.

According to an affidavit filed in federal court, Fitzsimons twice charged at a line of Metropolitan Police Department officers who managed to fight him off. One struck Fitzsimons on the head with a baton, according to the FBI's affidavit, which said he charged at a line of officers.

Fitzsimons, who worked as a butcher prior to his arrest, is well known in Lebanon as a second-amendment activist. He also served as a member on the town's Cannabis Committee, whose function it was to form rules, regulations and fees on businesses related to medical and recreational sales within the town.