WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered a Maryland man Thursday to spend three-and-a-half years in prison for forcibly resisting police who were trying to remove him from the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Daniel Egtvedt, of Garrett County, was convicted in January of four felony counts and three misdemeanors, including obstructing the joint session of Congress and forcibly resisting or impeding law enforcement. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who presided over Egtvedt’s bench trial, acquitted him of two additional counts of committing an act of physical violence and ruled prosecutors had not shown Egtvedt had assaulted any of the officers.
The Justice Department asked Cooper to sentence Egtvedt to 64 months, or more than five years, in prison – arguing he’d directly contributed to an injury suffered by DC Police Officer Michael DeCruz and to post-traumatic stress experienced by U.S. Capitol Police Officer Melissa Marshall.
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Marshall, who has since left the department and moved to New Zealand, said in a victim impact statement via Zoom on Thursday that she felt other Americans and elected officials had forgotten what happened on Jan. 6.
“I want to be clear that what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was a domestic terrorist attack,” she said.
Marshall said by the time she’d encountered Egtvedt, who entered through the Senate Wing doors after they were breached by other rioters, she had “already spent hours fighting for my life.” She described Egtvedt as “aggressive and unhinged” and said she’ll never forget their encounter.
“Seared into my memory forever is the moment when he charged me, grabbed me and screamed into my face, ‘You shoot me! Shoot me!’” Marshall said.
Egtvedt’s attorney, Kira Anne West, argued for a much lower sentence of time-served for the approximately two months he spent in pre-trial detention before being granted release. At trial, she argued police had initiated the encounter with Egtvedt and had treated him callously after he slammed the back of his head against a marble column while resisting officers. A doctor testified during a closed session about the lingering effects of a concussion he sustained from that blow, as well as other unspecified medical issues.
West also compared Egtvedt’s case to that of Dr. Simone Gold, an anti-vaccine activist who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced by Cooper to 60 days in prison last year. Cooper, however, said he found his conduct much more analogous to former Virginia police officer Thomas Robertson, who he ordered to serve seven years behind bars.
“I’ve seen a lot of these cases and you were among the most disruptive and threatening and dangerous instigators there,” Cooper said. “I think you were part of a group that overran police lines outside of those doors and afterward you tried to call in more folks.”
Cooper also rejected arguments Egtvedt made about being a “pawn” of former President Donald Trump and others.
“I don’t buy that your only choice was to blindly follow Donald Trump and the mob into the Capitol,” he said.
Ultimately, Cooper ordered Egtvedt to serve 42 months in prison and pay $2,000 in restitution for damage done to the Capitol. He will also serve three years on supervised release following his sentence. Cooper allowed Egtvedt to remain out on bond and self-surrender at a later date.
Outside of court, Egtvedt, who’d argued he should receive credit for acceptance of responsibility, told WUSA9 he thought he and other Jan. 6 defendants would eventually be redeemed.
“I think more will be revealed that’s going to vindicate us,” he said.
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