A District of Columbia police lieutenant convicted of tipping off Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio that he was being investigated, and who later lied about their communication, was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison.
Former Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Lt. Shane Lamond was found guilty last year on one count of obstructing justice and three counts of making false statements to federal law enforcement officials.
He was accused of warning Tarrio, then national chairman of the right-wing extremist group, that D.C. law enforcement had an arrest warrant for him related to the destruction of a Black Lives Matter banner.
Federal prosecutors also said he lied to law enforcement when pressed on the nature of his relationship with Tarrio, suggesting it was “one-sided.”
At trial, prosecutors said Lamond’s communications with Tarrio grew more secretive and frequent as pressure to arrest him mounted in 2020.
Both Lamond and Tarrio took the stand at the week-long bench trial. Lamond said he never passed sensitive police information along to Tarrio.
Tarrio as a witness in Lamond’s defense said he never received any confidential information from the lieutenant.
Tarrio was arrested over the incident on Jan. 4, 2021, and ordered out of the nation’s capital. He wasn’t in Washington two days later, when a mob of President Trump’s supporters — including dozens of Proud Boys — stormed the Capitol in aim of stopping the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
The Proud Boys leader was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being convicted of seditious conspiracy but was pardoned by Trump when he returned to the White House.
Tarrio was in the courtroom Friday, alongside Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and Ivan Raiklin, a Trump supporter who has deemed himself “Secretary of Retribution.”
