As Plover man faces charges in Jan. 6 insurrection, here's what we know so far about the case against Conlin Weyer
STEVENS POINT – A Plover man became the eighth Wisconsin resident arrested in connection with last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.
Conlin Weyer, 21, faces four charges from federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C. who accuse him of trespassing and engaging in disorderly conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol as Congress certified Joe Biden's electoral college victory over former President Donald Trump. Weyer was arrested Friday.
Details of the case against Conlin Weyer
Weyer faces four separate charges. Each charge carries the threat of jail and potential fines.
The misdemeanor charges are:
Entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds — up to one year in jail if convicted.
Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds — up to one year in jail if convicted.
Disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds — up to six months in jail if convicted.
Parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building — up to six months in jail if convicted.
The charges Weyer faces are some of the most common that federal prosecutors have issued in the 16 months since the Jan. 6 insurrection. More than 700 people have been charged with trespassing on Capitol grounds, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Weyer spent about 45 minutes inside the Capitol Building after rioters broke in. The assault prompted former Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Congress to be evacuated from both chambers of the Capitol, according to the arrest warrant released Friday.
About 140 officers were injured during the Capitol riot and five have died since then, USA TODAY reported in December. One protester was killed by police. The attack caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage to the Capitol, according to the Department of Justice.
FBI agents arrested Weyer on Friday in Plover first tracking him down using cellphone data from that day, scores of photos of Weyer inside the Capitol building and his Wisconsin driver's license. In April, FBI agents approached a former high school classmate of Weyer's, who identified him to agents as the man captured on social media and news media accounts as well as security footage from the Capitol. The classmate produced a SPASH yearbook to confirm Weyer's identity to agents.
Federal prosecutors have not accused Weyer of destruction of property or acts of violence in documents unsealed so far.
The timeline laid out by prosecutors using Weyer's cellphone data indicates he was part of the early waves of people who overwhelmed police and flooded into the building. Rioters broke their way into the Capitol at about 2 p.m. His cellphone data indicates he was inside from about 2:15 p.m. to 3 p.m. Pence and members of Congress were evacuated from Senate and House chambers at about 2:20 p.m.
His initial appearance in federal court is scheduled for 1 p.m. June 17 in Washington, D.C via teleconference.
People can track the case at the DOJ's website: justice.gov/usao-dc/defendants/weyer-conlin
RELATED: A Plover man who graduated from SPASH has been charged in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection
What we know about Weyer
Weyer graduated from Stevens Point Area Senior High in 2019.
He wrote a nearly 600-word public Facebook post on May 21, 2021 decrying equity and diversity, saying liberals are racist against white people under the "disguise of racial equity." The post has since been deleted or hidden.
"Now there is not a single white man who forced a black man to get on welfare, leave his pregnant girlfriend, to go mess around in the streets instead of going to school. The white man didn't do it to you, because the white man hasn't been able to force you to do anything since the 60s," Weyer wrote on Facebook. "Get out of a slave mindset, you wont feel so oppressed when you take the blinders off. I say all this purely for the purpose of exposing this part of society no one seems to acknowledge."
He went on to call the political left power-hungry and facing "no accountability for the violence, bigotry and intolerance they cause in the name of 'Social Justice'."
"This new worldview where straight white men are the cause of all suffering will only create extremists out of men who never had a race based thought," Weyer wrote.
What we don't know yet
How long federal investigators were searching for Weyer. The FBI, U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia declined to comment on the particulars of Weyer's case.
What he did while inside the Capitol for almost an hour.
Whether investigators were monitoring his social media history after the assault on the Capitol.
If he had shared publicly or to other people about attending the events of Jan. 6 before or after that day.
Contact reporter Alan Hovorka at 715-345-2252 or ahovorka@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ajhovorka.
This article originally appeared on Stevens Point Journal: Plover man faces Jan. 6 insurrection charges; what we know so far
