WASHINGTON — The attorney for a former NYPD officer asked jurors Tuesday to believe his client was instigated to attack police on Jan. 6 – suggesting multiple times a DC Police officer punched Thomas Webster in the face prior to the assault.
Webster’s trial on multiple felony charges began this week before U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta. The former officer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran is accused of repeatedly striking DC Police Officer Noah Rathbun with a metal pole before breaking through a barricade and tackling him to the ground.
Several jurors were clearly shocked by footage from Rathbun’s bodyworn camera, which shows an irate Webster in a red, black and white jacket pushing through the crowd outside the U.S. Capitol Building to berate officers. The video shows Webster repeatedly pushing at the bike racks police were using as an ad hoc barricade before swinging the pole at one of them – Rathbun – who then managed to disarm him.
After the pole is taken from him, Webster can be seen charging forward through the barricade with other rioters and tackling Rathbun to the ground as he attempts to rip off his gas mask and helmet. DC Police Det. Jonathan Lauderdale, who reviewed hundreds of hours of bodyworn camera footage, including Rathbun’s, said Webster’s attack “choked out” Rathbun with the chin strap of his helmet.
The video of the confrontation lasts about a minute and a half, but Webster’s attorney, James E. Monroe, focused on just a few frames which appear to show Rathbun’s hand making contact with Webster’s face at the corner of the video. Monroe also played a video from a second angle during his opening statement which, he claimed, showed Rathbun initiated the confrontation – although even that video appeared to show Webster shoving the bike rack barrier prior to any contact by Rathbun.
Monroe repeatedly asked Lauderdale if he knew about or had seen any notes from an FBI use-of-force investigation into Rathbun’s contact on Jan. 6 – a line of questioning Judge Mehta eventually shut down as inappropriate. Lauderdale said his role on the riot task force was to investigate possible criminal conduct from rioters, and not to conduct internal affairs investigations. He also said he wasn’t aware of the brief moment of footage that appears to show contact between Rathbun and Webster until just prior to his testimony Tuesday. But, he said, even if Rathbun made contact with Webster on Jan. 6, he couldn’t see how it was the DC Police officer, as Monroe suggested, who was instigating.
“I don’t see how him responding to the Capitol on the chief or the mayor’s order to defend democracy and stop what was going on, how he initiated that,” Lauderdale said.
Monroe continued hammering Lauderdale, however, on whether Rathbun reported any injuries from the attack by Webster – he did not – or whether he filed a use-of-force report about the incident – also. Lauderdale said DC Police policy requires officers to notify a superior if they use force in the line of duty.
“What about if you punch someone in the face without provocation?” Monroe asked.
“Yes,” Lauderdale said.
Even if he had known about the contact Rathbun made with Webster’s face, however, Lauderdale said it would not have affected his role in the investigation or his decision to put out a BOLO on Webster.
“There was clear video evidence of an assault on a police officer,” he said.
Prosecutors said they intended to call Rathbun himself to the stand to testify on Wednesday. While Monroe was expected to challenge Rathburn on the reports he filed – or didn’t file – after Jan. 6 and the FBI investigation into his use of force, Monroe was unlikely to be able to ask about a May 2021 shooting in which Rathbun shot and killed 26-year-old Vedo Hall while Hall was reportedly holding his ex-girlfriend against her will with a rifle. Federal prosecutors declined to bring any charges against Rathbun in connection to the shooting, saying in a statement there was insufficient evidence to show he’d used excessive force under the circumstances.
Including Rathbun, prosecutors said they had five witnesses to call Wednesday and would likely rest on Thursday. In a pretrial memorandum, Monroe said he also had five witnesses to call, including three who will act as character witnesses on Webster’s behalf.
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