Flint, MI—A Flint resident was arrested on Dec. 2 for assaulting police officers with a baton during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a federal indictment.
Justin Jersey, 31, is charged with seven crimes, including assault, civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly and disruptive conduct, violent entry, and engaging in physical violence.
The assault charges carry the heaviest potential punishment: up to 20 years in federal prison.
Jersey was named as an additional defendant in a third indictment in the District of Columbia in a case that previously included seven other defendants, including Logan James Barnhart of Lansing.
According to the indictment, Jersey participated in the assault of a Metropolitan Police Department officer, then armed himself with a baton, which he used to strike at other officers.
The case is being investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, with assistance provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Jersey was No. 106 on the FBI’s Capitol wanted page and was highly sought after by online “Sedition Hunters” after he was visible in several videos and photos of the riot. Internet sleuths gave him the nickname “Fingerman,” referencing a viral photo of him giving the middle finger to an officer at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
He also has a tattoo on his middle finger reading “FUCK YOU” that may have helped online sleuths identify him after they discovered a Facebook post about the riot that his girlfriend tagged him and Trevor Brown, another Jan. 6 defendant, in.
Congress was meeting in a joint session on Jan. 6 to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election when supporters of former President Donald Trump, who has spread disproven conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of the election results, breached the building.
The indictment alleges in part that Jersey “did knowingly, and with intent to impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, engage in disorderly and disruptive conduct in and within such proximity to, a restricted building and grounds, that is, any posted, cordoned-off, and otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President was temporarily visiting, when and so that such conduct did in fact impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions and, during and in relation to the offense, did use and carry a deadly and dangerous weapon, that is, a stick, baton, flag pole, crutch, and reinforced gloves.”
It also accuses Jersey of having “willfully and knowingly engaged in an act of physical violence within the United States Capitol Grounds and any of the Capitol Buildings.”
In the 10 months since Jan. 6, more than 675 individuals have been arrested in relation to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 210 who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
Sure would not want to be him
Would not want to be him
Wouldn’t want to be him
Lock. Him. Up!