Bucks County man, held on Capitol riot charges since January 2021, finally hears verdict
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Bucks County man, held since January 2021 on U.S. Capitol riot charges, is unlikely to leave prison anytime soon.
A federal judge on Friday announced guilty verdicts for eight charges against Ryan Samsel, 40, of Bristol, the Justice Department said.
Six of the convictions are for felonies, including two counts of civil disorder and one charge stemming from an assault on a police officer.
Father and son both charged Atlantic City DJ who hoped for viral video at Capitol riot, gets prison time
Samsel’s lawyers, whose client was indicted on 11 counts, declined to comment.
Among other allegations, Samsel was accused of helping to push a bike-rack barricade against outnumbered officers outside the Capitol.
The tell-tale hat? Eagles cap led feds to Capitol-riot suspect
The bike rack hit Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards in the face, according to the Justice Department.
She fell backward, struck her head against a metal handrail and a concrete step, and suffered a concussion, it said.
Ryan Samsel guilty in bike-barricade incident
Edwards, who testified at Samsel’s trial in October, also described the violent scene to the House of Representatives committee investigating the riot.
"It was carnage. It was chaos," Edwards told the committee in June.
Samsel and two co-defendants were convicted of assaulting Edwards with a dangerous or dangerous weapon.
The bike-barricade incident at 12:50 p.m. was the initial attack on Capitol Police officers by supporters of then-President Donald Trump at the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, the prosecution asserted.
The attack by Samsel and his co-defendants "paved the way for thousands of rioters to storm the Capitol grounds," the prosecution claimed in a pretrial filing.
As the riot continued, Samsel grabbed at another officer's shield, and threw a pole and a two-by-four plank at police, the filing said.
As a result of the plank incident, he was found guilty of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon.
Attorney: Samsel's rights were violated
A defense attorney contended Samsel was the victim of assaults and civil rights violations during his years in pretrial custody.
Samsel, arrested on Jan. 30, 2021, was moved through at least eight detention facilities prior to the trial, that filing said.
In denying Samsel’s request to be released before trial, Cobb noted “the strength of the evidence” and his “history of convictions for violent conduct.”
Samsel is named in a May 2019 warrant for assault in Riverside, Burlington County.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, who held a bench trial last fall for Samsel and four others, announced her verdicts on Feb. 2 in Washington, D.C.
Samsel also was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and an additional charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers. Both of those offenses are felonies.
He was convicted of two misdemeanors — physical violence on Capitol grounds and disorderly, disruptive conduct on Capitol grounds.
Also convicted were James T. Grant, 31, of North Carolina; Paul R. Johnson, 38, of Virginia; Stephen C. Randolph, 34, of Kentucky; and Jason B. Blythe, 28, of Texas.
Sentencing was scheduled for June 13.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Ryan Samsel was accused of causing a cop's concussion at Capitol riot
