A former North Miami Beach police officer has been charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of government business after live-streaming himself inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Nicholes Lentz, 41, told FBI agents that he traveled to the nation’s capital after seeing social media posts by former President Trump but said he did not intend to commit any violence, according to court documents unsealed on Sunday. Lentz did, however, admit to authorities that “of course you know you're trespassing,” according to an affidavit from an FBI agent establishing probable cause for his arrest.
According to the affidavit, Lentz wore a jacket identifying himself as a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, allowing authorities to identify him. The Miami Herald also published Lentz’s just under a minute-long livestream from within the building on Jan. 11.
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In the video—originally posed to his Facebook page and since deleted—Lentz can be seen telling viewers, “You cannot stop millions of people, you cannot stop it. You can’t. It’s impossible… America has a voice, we give them the power, we give the power, the people give the power. And we’re here to take it back.”
Lentz voluntarily left the North Miami Beach police department in August, according to the Herald, just two months after an anonymous Twitter account appeared to show him making a racist Facebook comment. Private posts from Lentz’s account shared with the Herald include one of him at a gun range just days before the 2020 election, with the caption “When Trump wins, I can’t wait to see if someone is going to play the game (come f--- around and find out) with me. The RED wave is coming.”
Read it at CourtListener
