A Swansea man and former Fall River business owner has been indicted by a grand jury in a seven-count indictment related to alleged actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
In a document filed Wednesday, Michael St. Pierre is charged with the crime of public disorder in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia. In addition, St. Pierre is accused of several misdemeanors, including destruction of government property, willfully entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, exerting physical force in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and exerting physical force on Capitol grounds or buildings.
According to court documents, St. Pierre traveled from his home to Washington, DC, and participated in the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. On the way to the Capitol, St. Pierre can be heard declaring that the Capitol is “the assembly point. Hopefully they break through, and I will join them in storming the Capitol and grabbing Nancy Pelosi by the hair.”
According to court documents, video footage from that day shows a man, later identified as St. Pierre, throwing an object through the open exterior doors at a set of interior doors of the Capitol. Video footage also shows U.S. Capitol Police officers attempting to control the crowd outside the doors, eventually retreating to the interior entrance of the building as the crowd became increasingly violent. Once police officers were inside, several protesters, including St. Pierre, threw objects at the doors behind which police officers were positioned.
St. Pierre is also seen urging others to help him as he joins a group of rioters pushing against a police line. In another open-source video, court documents say St. Pierre calls on rioters through a megaphone to enter the Capitol, saying, “We need everybody, let’s go to the Capitol.”
This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Boston Field Office with assistance from the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department.
