Judge issues first outright acquittal of Jan. 6 protest defendant

The defendant claimed that he thought police allowed him into an entrance near the Capitol Rotunda.

Following a two-day bench trial, New Mexico engineer Matthew Martin was acquitted Wednesday on four misdemeanor charges by Judge Trevor McFadden. | Jon Cherry/Getty Images

A judge has issued the first outright acquittal of a defendant charged in the Capitol riot.

Following a two-day bench trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, New Mexico engineer Matthew Martin was acquitted Wednesday on four misdemeanor charges by U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden. Martin claimed that he thought the police had allowed him into an entrance near the Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 6, 2021.

McFadden said that, based on video of the scene, that assertion was at least “plausible” and that prosecutors failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“People were streaming by and the officers made no attempt to stop the people,” said the judge, an appointee of President Donald Trump.

Prosecutors argued that broken windows and blaring alarms should have alerted Martin that he did not have permission to enter, but McFadden said the sheer size of the crowd coupled with the conduct of the police undermined that evidence.

The ruling is a blow to the Justice Department and seems likely to elevate similar defenses from hundreds of other members of the mob who have claimed that they didn’t know they weren’t permitted inside the Capitol and believed that police officers had approved their presence.

Martin, who became the first Jan. 6 defendant to testify in his own defense, said he believed that an officer waved him into the Rotunda lobby at about 3 p.m. that day.

McFadden said that he did not believe that, but that the way the officer briefly interrupted the flow of people and then stepped back to allow it to resume could have given Martin that impression.

“I do think the defendant reasonably believed the officers allowed him into the Capitol,” the judge said.

McFadden stressed that he wasn’t criticizing the officers, who he said “were grossly outnumbered at that point.”

“I think they acted responsibly and reasonably throughout,” the judge said.

However, the verdict could be viewed as a message from McFadden to prosecutors that pursuing criminal charges against nearly every demonstrator who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 was unwise and that resources should have been trained more intensely on those accused of violence or of conspiring to block the electoral vote count.

McFadden called Martin’s conduct “about as minimal and not serious as I can imagine” among Jan. 6 defendants.

Martin faced charges of entering and remaining in a restricted area set up for a Secret Service protectee, disorderly conduct in such an area, disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds and parading or...

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