Kingston man found guilty of 7 charges related to Jan. 6 riot in Washington, D.C.

A 39-year-old Kingston man who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol was found guilty Tuesday of seven charges, including three felonies, by a federal jury in Washington, D.C.

Taylor James Johnatakis, who represented himself at trial, was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, all felony charges, according to a press release from the office of Matthew Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Johnatakis was also convicted of four misdemeanor crimes related to his actions that day, when the certification of President Joe Biden's election by Congress was delayed after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building. The misdemeanor charges were listed as entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; and engaging in an act of physical violence in the grounds of any of the Capitol building.

Johnatakis will be sentenced at a later date.

As previously reported by the Kitsap Sun, Johnatakis confirmed he was at the Capitol in his own podcast, "The Peasants Perspective," published after the events of Jan. 6, 2021. In the podcast he did not offer specifics about his level of participation in the disturbance, where Trump supporters were accused of assaulting police officers, breaching security and sending lawmakers scrambling for cover until the building was secured.

Prosecutors said that Johnatakis led a mob of rioters up a staircase to the Capitol and was part of a group that overwhelmed police officers on an outdoor staircase and then followed the officers underneath scaffolding of the inauguration stage as they attempted to retreat. The statement also alleges that Johnatakis, while on the southwest staircase of the Capitol, organized and coordinated rioters with a megaphone he had brought with him that day, specifically telling rioters to "Pack it in!" toward a police line and then to push bike racks toward police. Prosecutors also said he was one of three defendants that then grabbed and pushed bike racks directly into the line of police officers, one of whom was injured.

The other two defendants accused of using the bike racks, Isaac Steve Sturgeon and Craig Michael Bingert, have both been convicted and sentenced for their roles.

Johnatakis is the second man from Kitsap County to be found guilty by a jury of crimes associated with the events of Jan. 6. In April, David Charles Rhine, of Bremerton, was also found guilty of four misdemeanor charges for trespassing by a jury in U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. Rhine was sentenced to four months in prison.

A third man, John M. Cameron of Port Orchard, pleaded guilty in 2022 to a count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a capitol building and was later sentenced to 36 months of probation and 30 days of intermittent confinement. Cameron was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and $500 in restitution to the Architect of the Capitol. A judge later vacated the confinement requirement and allowed for placement at a residential reentry center for 30 days, according to court records.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Kingston man found guilty of 7 charges related to Jan. 6 riot