WASHINGTON — A former Boston police officer was arrested Thursday on charges alleging he assaulted a fellow member of law enforcement inside the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6.
Joseph Robert Fisher, 52, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, was taken into custody at his home on multiple counts, including felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding police and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.
According to charging documents, Fisher entered the building through the Senate Wing doors approximately 10 minutes after the initial breach. After entering the building, Fisher made his way to the Crypt and then to the Capitol Visitors Center, where he’s accused of pushing a chair into a U.S. Capitol Police Officer and then physically assaulting him.
Fisher isn’t the first former police officer to be accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement on Jan. 6 – or even the first former officer with that name to be charged. In February 2021, Joseph W. Fischer, of Jonestown, Pennsylvania, was arrested on multiple felony counts for allegedly charging the police line inside the Capitol. Fischer pleaded not guilty and continues to await trial.
In August 2022, Thomas Robertson, who was an officer with the Rocky Mount (Virginia) Police Department on Jan. 6, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for obstructing the joint session of congress and impeding police during a civil disorder. A month later, Thomas Webster, a former NYPD officer, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violently assaulting a DC Police Officer who was attempting to hold the bike rack perimeter around the Capitol.
Fisher was expected to make his initial appearance in a Massachusetts district court on Thursday.
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