'No interest in pleading' | Trial date set for DC Police lieutenant accused of lying about Proud Boys contacts

WASHINGTON — A DC Police lieutenant accused of tipping off Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio about an investigation into him and lying to the FBI about their communications will go before a jury in February, a federal judge said Monday.

Lt. Shane Lamond was indicted in May with one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements. He has been on leave since last year over questions about his relationship with the Proud Boys leader following the indictment of Tarrio and four other members of the group on seditious conspiracy charges. Tarrio and his co-defendants were convicted earlier this year on a multitude of charges in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and await sentencing.

On Monday, Lamond's attorney, Mark E. Schamel, asked U.S. District Judge Amy B. Jackson for a trial date — saying his client had no intention of pleading guilty to any of the counts he faces.

"We don't have a plea offer on the table, but we had discussions with the government last year and Mr. Lamond made it very clear to the government he has no interest in pleading," Schamel said.

Schamel said he thought the defense could be ready as early as November for trial, although Jackson, noting her own busy calendar, ultimately set a Feb. 13 trial date.

Prosecutors said Monday they had recently turned over approximately 420,000 pages of documents to Lamond. Schamel said it will likely take several months to go through them and determine which are relevant to the case. The Justice Department expects its portion of the trial to take approximately three-to-four days.

Lamond is accused of passing along information to Tarrio about DC Police's investigation into the Proud Boys’ burning of a Black Live Matter flag stolen from the Asbury United Methodist Church in D.C. following a rally in support of former President Donald Trump in December 2020. Tarrio eventually pleaded guilty to burning the flag and possession of two large-capacity magazines and was sentenced to five months in prison.

Prior to his arrest, however, prosecutors say Lamond was passing along confidential police information about the investigation to Tarrio, including that a warrant for his arrest was being prepared. Lamond is also accused of failing to provide his superiors with information he received from Tarrio, including that Tarrio had admitted his involvement in the flag burning to him. Lamond also allegedly told Tarrio he’d persuaded the department not to pursue hate crimes charges in connection to the incident.

“If anything I said it’s political but then I drew attention to the Trump and American flags that were taken by antifa and set on fire,” Lamond wrote in a message to Tarrio on Dec. 18, 2020. “I said all those would have to be classified as hate crimes too.”

Between Dec. 18, when Tarrio admitted to the flag burning, and Jan. 4, when he was arrested, prosecutors say he and Lamond communicated via a messaging application with self-destruct timers at least 145 times. Of those, they said, at least 101 messages were destroyed.

After Jan. 6, prosecutors say Lamond used his law enforcement contacts to get a list of the people being questioned in connection to the Proud Boys’ role in the riot and voiced his support to the group to Tarrio.

“Of course, I can’t say it officially, but personally I support you all and don’t want to see your group’s name or reputation dragged through the mud,” Lamond wrote on Jan. 8, 2021.

In June 2021, Lamond was interviewed by the FBI about his contacts with Tarrio. According to the indictment, he made false and misleading statements during that interview about his relationship with the Proud Boys leader, including denying he’d tipped Tarrio off to the investigation about the flag burning and that a warrant had been prepared for his arrest. Lamond also allegedly failed to tell the FBI that Tarrio had identified an associate who was present at the Capitol on Jan. 6 to him or that he’d previously made comments about attending events in D.C. that day.

Following his arrest, DC Police released a statement saying Lamond had been on administrative leave since early February 2022 and that an internal investigation into his conduct would be competed following the criminal proceedings.