NC man pleads not guilty to charges stemming from Jan. 6 riots at DC Capitol building

A North Carolina man and former Marine Monday pleaded not guilty to allegedly shoving police and heaving a battering ram and bike rack to breach Washington D.C.’s Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.

Federal prosecutors say body camera images show Lake Norman’s Lee Stutts — donning a “2020 Trump Keep America Great” shirt, an American flag garter and a helmet — as he allegedly shoves a Metropolitan Police officer in the chest.

He faced felony charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder during his Monday arraignment in Washington D.C.’s District Court. Both are felonies.

Stutts, 46, of Terrell, was one of several thousand people — and at least 15 now-convicted North Carolinians — who ascended on the Capitol after a speech from former president Donald Trump. There, a crowd broke through police barricades, breached the building and attempted to stop the joint session of Congress where electoral votes were being counted in the 2020 presidential election.

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Protests at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021

Stutts told The Charlotte Observer earlier this month that he left a “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021 expecting to find antifa — the far-left, anti-facist activists whom Donald Trump blamed for 2020’s protests against racial injustice — at the Capitol. Instead, walls of law enforcement officers with shields and batons waited.

“I wore a helmet and had my fists. I roughhoused a little bit,” Stutts said, “but I didn’t punch them, none of that.”

Stutts told the Observer about his planned plea during an interview last week.

“I went up there to support our country and to whup somebody’s ass from antifa,” he said. “We have to protect the people.”

Four people died that day. Another, a police officer, died the following day.

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Stutts’ arraignment hearing

Stutts’ arraignment appearance was delayed last Tuesday for an unknown reason. His next court date, likely a trial date, will soon be announced.

He could be among at least 28 North Carolina defendants who have been sentenced so far. Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,100 people have been charged in nearly all 50 states, including more than 398 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony.