WASHINGTON — Before joining the Proud Boys in late 2020, Dominic Pezzola had become increasingly isolated and “consumed” by right-wing politics during COVID-19 lockdowns, his common law wife testified Wednesday at his ongoing seditious conspiracy trial.
“He started drinking very heavily and inundated himself with Fox News day and night,” Lisa Magee said.
Magee was called to the stand by Pezzola’s attorney Steve Metcalf as a key character witness in the case. Pezzola, who used a police riot shield to bash in a window and create the first breach of the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, began trial in January alongside four leaders of the Proud Boys, including former chairman Enrique Tarrio.
For weeks, jurors had seen images of Pezzola hyped up as a “War Boy” in a social media post by Tarrio and smoking a celebratory cigar following the breach of the Capitol. On Wednesday, Metcalf called Magee to offer a different image of the Proud Boy.
Magee, who said she met Pezzola when she was 18 and working as a waitress, told jurors about his history in the U.S. Marine Corps and as an avid boxer. She testified about his battle for custody for his daughter and how Pezzola had been working 80 hours a week to provide for their family. She also testified about how their family was impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns, which put Pezzola out of work as a contractor. She also described their experience of the protests in summer 2020 near their home in Rochester, New York.
“We received a phone call to leave work early,” Magee said. “That there were protests going on, turning violent. Police cars were burned. Personal vehicles set on fire.”
Pezzola, she said, began drinking heavily and became consumed with politics. That’s when Magee told him to “find some friends.”
“Is that why we’re here today?” Metcalf asked.
Although Magee offered almost no testimony on the stand Wednesday about Pezzola’s role in the Capitol riot, she spoke at length with WUSA9 during an interview in June 2021.
“It was a broken window,” Magee said about the now infamous video of Pezzola. “Everywhere in the United States of America, breaking a window is a criminal mischief charge. Anybody anywhere that broke a window wouldn’t even likely be arrested. They would be given an appearance ticket.”
Through nearly three months of trial, Pezzola’s attorneys Metcalf and Roger Roots have worked to convince jurors of the same thing. Roots argued in his opening statement that the riot did not obstruct the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.
“The government makes a big deal about this six-hour recess,” Roots said on Jan. 12 at the trial’s open. “The evidence will show that if it was an attack, it might have been one of the lamest attacks you can imagine.”
Roots has also argued that it was police’s use of force in attempting to repel rioters that caused Pezzola, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, to go into battle mode and push forward to the Capitol.
If convicted of the most serious charges against him, Pezzola potentially faces years in prison on top of the two he’s already spent in pre-trial detention. On Wednesday, Pezzola's attorney suggested he intended to call his client to the stand to testify on his own behalf.
Magee, who finished her testimony Wednesday afternoon, told WUSA9 in June 2021 she hoped people could look past the charges against Pezzola and see the man she knew.
“A single day does not determine a man’s entire life,” she said.
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