Former Jan. 6 defendant charged with spying on woman in tanning salon
A St. Ansgar man who pleaded guilty to taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol has been arrested again, this time for allegedly taking surreptitious video of a female customer in a tanning salon owned by his family.
Daryl Johnson, 52, is charged with invasion of privacy, a misdemeanor, according to court filings. The complaint states that on Jan. 27, Johnson placed his cell phone atop a dividing wall separating tanning rooms at iSun Tan 24/7 in Clear Lake, pointing its camera into an adjacent room where a woman was tanning. The woman told investigators she did not know or consent to being filmed as she was undressing and using the tanning bed.
Johnson also allegedly resisted the seizure of his phone by police.
The new charges, which were first reported by the Globe Gazette in Mason City, come seven months after Johnson was sentenced to 30 days in prison for his role in the Capitol riot. Johnson and his son, Daniel of Austin, Minnesota, were charged with entering the Capitol through a shattered window and at one point allowing more rioters to enter by rushing a group of police officers who were trying to hold a door to the building shut .
Johnson pleaded guilty in that case to civil disorder, a felony. His son pleaded to the same charge and received a four-month sentence. Aside from Johnson's federal case, state records do not show any other prior criminal convictions.
Johnson's family owns multiple businesses
State and county records confirm the salon property is owned by an entity registered to Johnson's father, former St. Ansgar Mayor Norman Johnson. During their federal case, Johnson and his son emphasized their background as small business owners, and Johnson's attorney wrote that the family owns nine laundromats, a car wash and the tanning salon in Iowa and Minnesota, with ownership split between Johnson, his wife and his parents.
In court filings, Johnson and his son indicated one reason they traveled to Washington for the rally with then-President Donald Trump preceding the Jan. 6 riot was their dismay at damage sustained by several of their Twin Cities properties during unrest that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
"The whole world seemed to be upside down," Johnson said at his sentencing hearing. "Wrong was called right, or it was excused, and it just seemed to me the whole world went a bit crazy."
Johnson apologized for his role in the attack, especially for the trauma inflicted on lawmakers and Capitol employees and police.
"For me to be part of something that caused that pain and anguish that they’re going to have to deal with really causes me heartbreak, and I’m really truly sorry," he told the judge.
Johnson does not currently have an attorney listed in the Iowa invasion of privacy case.
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William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Jan. 6 riot defendant charged with spying on woman in tanning salon
