Trial set for DC police lieutenant accused of tipping off Proud Boys
A District of Columbia police lieutenant accused of warning Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio he was being investigated and later lying about their communication will face trial starting Feb. 13, 2024.
Lieutenant Shane Lamond allegedly tipped off Tarrio, then national chairman of the right-wing extremist group, that law enforcement had an arrest warrant for him related to the destruction of a Black Lives Matter banner in the nation’s capital.
Justice Department prosecutors also say Lamond lied to federal law enforcement officers when asked about the nature of his relationship with Tarrio, suggesting it was “one-sided” and that Tarrio primarily shared “what their plans were.” He’s charged with three counts of making false statements.
Lamond was indicted on May 18, two weeks after Tarrio and three other Proud Boys were convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. A fifth Proud Boy was acquitted of sedition but convicted of other serious felonies. Some of Lamond and Tarrio’s exchanges were revealed as evidence during the trial.
On Dec. 18, 2020, Lamond asked Tarrio whether he anonymously tipped off the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) that he was responsible for burning a historic Black church’s Black Lives Matter banner, according to Lamond’s indictment. Tarrio responded that he posted it on social media.
The same day, Tarrio told other Proud Boys he “got the jump on the narrative” for the banner burning, which would make it difficult to prosecute him for a hate crime. He cited the information to his “contact at DC Metro.”
Lamond, who was an intelligence officer at MPD, told Tarrio on Christmas 2020 that he was asked to identify the extremist group leader in a photo posted on the right-leaning alternative social media website Parler. Tarrio was depicted kneeling next to the banner.
“They may be submitting an arrest warrant to the U.S. Attorney’s office,” Lamond wrote to Tarrio.
The pair spoke on the phone for about 14 minutes on Dec. 30, and messages between Tarrio and other Proud Boys that day suggested they knew Tarrio faced arrest.
Days later, on Jan. 4, Tarrio was arrested. A system message in the chat between Lamond and Tarrio showed the settings were changed to self-destruct their correspondence, according to the Lamond indictment.
Prosecutors claim Lamond and Tarrio communicated more than 500 times across multiple platforms beginning in July 2019.
During Tarrio’s Jan. 6 trial, attorneys for the Proud Boys leader attempted to use his relationship with Lamond as evidence the group was not engaged in criminal activity.
If convicted, Lamond faces up to 30 years in prison for the obstruction of justice charge and up to five years in prison for each count of making a false statement.
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