Kansas man charged with assaulting federal officer in Capitol riot to go to trial

A Kansas man charged with multiple felonies in connection with the Capitol riot, including assaulting a federal officer, is scheduled to go to trial in Washington, D.C., this fall.

The jury trial for Michael Eckerman, of Wichita, will begin on Nov. 28, U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ordered this week. The trial will be held in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Eckerman will be the first Kansas defendant charged in the Capitol riot cases to go to trial. Eight Kansas residents have been charged for offenses ranging from demonstrating in a Capitol building to threatening or assaulting officers. Of those, four have pleaded guilty and three of those have been sentenced. The other is scheduled for sentencing in November.

Eckerman was indicted by a grand jury on Oct. 8. He is charged with multiple felonies, including civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, as well as several misdemeanors.

One of the conditions of release set by U.S. Magistrate Judge Gwynne E. Birzer after Eckerman’s arrest in Wichita in September raised questions about a possible connection to the far-right Proud Boys. It said, “No contact with Proud Boys organization nor anyone a member of or connected to it.”

The Proud Boys are at the forefront of the federal investigation into the Capitol insurrection. Authorities have rounded up more than three dozen members from around the country, including several in leadership positions, on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to assaulting a federal officer to sedition. Four Proud Boys from the Kansas City area are among those who were charged.

Eckerman’s attorney declined comment on the case Thursday.

On April 27, the government filed a superseding indictment against Eckerman, adding Kirstyn Niemela of New Hampshire as a co-defendant. Niemela was arrested in New Hampshire on Jan. 18, 2021, along with a woman from Massachusetts. The two were seen with Eckerman in photos and surveillance video at the Capitol. Niemela also is scheduled for trial on Nov. 28.

According to charging documents in the case, an anonymous tipster provided authorities with a photo of a man the person said was Eckerman. The man was inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, wearing a tactical vest and red Trump cap, posing in front of a painting of George Washington. The tipster said Eckerman had sent photos to friends back in Wichita that day.

Another tipster identified Eckerman in a photo from a Facebook post in which Eckerman was wearing the same cap and tactical gear, the documents said. That photo also showed a woman with a red scarf and another person who both were with Eckerman. Police body-worn camera footage from that day showed the man believed to be Eckerman yelling at officers as they tried to keep protesters away from the Capitol, according to the court documents.

Surveillance camera footage from inside the Capitol showed Eckerman and the two women — wearing black sweatshirts and draped in American flags — entering the building around 2:23 p.m. through the Senate wing door. About 2:27 p.m., the documents said, Eckerman was seen on surveillance cameras outside the crypt of the Capitol building, where Capitol Police had stopped the surge of rioters.

“Eckerman pushes his way through the crowd up to one of the officers until he is face to face with the officer,” the charging documents said. “He appears to push the officer backwards several feet.”

The officer, whose initials are K.Y., was later interviewed and said that the man identified as Eckerman pushed him “with aggressive force,” according to the documents. “The push caused Officer K.Y. to lose his balance and fall down a small set of stairs. After being knocked to the ground, Officer K.Y. was sprayed in the face with a fire extinguisher by an unknown individual.”

That incident allowed the crowd to start moving past police, the documents said. Eckerman and his two companions then went up to Statuary Hall on the second floor, where he again pushed his way forward to another police line, according to the documents. Eckerman again yelled at officers for several minutes, then moved with his companions to the Rayburn Reception Room, where he had his picture taken in front of a portrait of George Washington.

Surveillance video then captured Eckerman heading toward the back entrance to the House Chamber, where Ashli Babbitt was shot by a law enforcement officer as she tried to climb through a door where glass had been broken out to get to the House Chamber, the documents said. Just after the shooting, video showed Eckerman and his companions exiting the Capitol through the upper House doors around 2:44 p.m.

Outside, Eckerman was interviewed about the shooting by FreedomNews.tv, saying that “I don’t know her name, all I know is we went there (Capitol) as patriots. She is dead because we’re here. These mother (expletive deleted) are traitors, they are (expletive deleted) traitors!”

Authorities later interviewed two people who had been in contact with Eckerman by phone on Jan. 6. Both confirmed that the man in the photos was Eckerman, and one, identified in the court document as W-2, recalled running into Eckerman a few days after the insurrection.

“Eckerman showed W-2 photographs of the crowd outside the Capitol by displaying them on his phone,” the documents said. “Eckerman told W-2 that he went inside the Capitol and took a picture next to a painting of George Washington. Eckerman also told W-2 that he was several feet away from the woman who was shot and killed.”

On Aug. 20, more than seven months after the insurrection, Eckerman attended a special meeting of the Sedgwick County Commission to speak out against mask mandates intended to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“We’re being lied to every day about vaccines,” he said. “I’m just telling you, I don’t trust them. I will never comply to this. I will never wear a mask. And I will never make my kids wear a mask ever. Never. I won’t do it. So I’m just telling you, I’m not alone. We don’t trust you. We don’t trust the media. We don’t trust the government. And I sure don’t trust the doctors…”

“I don’t want to be a problem. I don’t want to be one of the anti maskers, anti-vax people. I believe in vaccinations. I’m vaccinated, OK? Just not with this one, because I don’t know enough about it. And I’m not alone.”