By Michael Kunzelman
AP News
A retired police officer in the nation’s capital was convicted Dec. 23, 2024 of lying to authorities about leaking confidential information to the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson convicted former Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Shane Lamond of obstructing justice and making false statements after a trial without a jury.
Sentencing was scheduled for April 3, 2024 after Lamond’s conviction on all four counts.
Lamond was charged with leaking information to then-Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was under investigation in the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner.
Lamond testified at his bench trial that he never provided Tarrio with sensitive police information. Tarrio, who testified as a witness for Lamond’s defense, said he did not confess to Lamond about burning the banner and did not receive any confidential information from him.
But the judge did not find either man’s testimony to be credible. Jackson said the evidence indicated that Lamond was not using Tarrio as a source after the banner burning.
“It was the other way around,” she said.
The judge said the string of messages that Lamond and Tarrio exchanged over the course of months showed a pattern: “Lamond and Tarrio talk, and Tarrio immediately disseminates what he learns,” she added.
The judge described Tarrio as an “awful witness” who was “flippant, grandiose and obnoxious” on the stand.
“He was one of the worst I’ve had the opportunity to sit next to during my tenure on the bench,” Jackson said.
After the verdict, defense attorney Mark Schamel said it was premature to say if there will be an appeal.
“It’s unbelievably disappointing to see every single thing that Lt. Lamond did viewed through a lens to make it appear to be something other than it was,” Schamel said outside the courtroom. “There is nothing disloyal about him at all, and it’s a sad day for him.”
Tarrio eventually pleaded guilty to burning the banner stolen from a historic Black church in downtown Washington in December 2020.
He was later sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, part of what prosecutors called a plot to use force to keep Donald Trump in the White House after the 2020 election.
Lamond, who met Tarrio in 2019, had supervised the intelligence branch of the police department’s Homeland Security Bureau. He was responsible for monitoring groups like the Proud Boys when they came to Washington.
Tarrio was arrested in Washington two days before the Jan. 6 siege. The Miami resident wasn’t at the Capitol when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building and interrupted the congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Prosecutors said the trial evidence proved Lamond tipped off Tarrio that a warrant for his arrest had been signed.
“Similarly, the defendant affirmatively advised Mr. Tarrio in a written message that he was being asked to identify him for a warrant, a warning obviously in contemplation of the subsequent prosecution and with obvious ramifications for it,” prosecutors wrote.
Lamond’s indictment says he and Tarrio exchanged messages about the Jan. 6 riot and discussed whether Proud Boys members were in danger of being charged in the attack.
“Of course I can’t say it officially, but personally I support you all and don’t want to see your group’s name and reputation dragged through the mud,” Lamond wrote.
Lamond said he was upset that a prosecutor labeled him as a Proud Boys “sympathizer” who acted as a “double agent” for the group after Tarrio burned a stolen Black Lives Matter banner in December 2020.
“I don’t support the Proud Boys, and I’m not a Proud Boys sympathizer,” Lamond testified.
Lamond said he considered Tarrio to be a source, not a friend. But he said he tried to build a friendly rapport with the group leader to gain his trust.
Justice Department prosecutor Joshua Rothstein pointed to messages that suggest Lamond provided Tarrio with “real-time updates” on the police investigation of the Dec. 12, 2020, banner burning.
Lamond, 48, of Colonial Beach, Virginia, was charged with one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements. He retired in May 2023 after 23 years of service to the police department.