National Roundup

New York
Smoked out: Tips, videos lead to Capitol riot suspects in NY
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — An upstate New York man who boasted in a Facebook video that he was in the “Capitol building smoking with all my people!” and a Long Island man who told a friend on Instagram “I’d storm the Capitol for you any day” were arrested Wednesday in connection with the insurrection earlier this month, federal authorities said.

James Bonet of Glens Falls and Christopher Ortiz of Huntington were charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority and disorderly conduct on U.S. Capitol grounds, according to court papers. Both cases will be tried in Washington, D.C.

Bonet turned himself into the FBI and Ortiz was arrested separately Wednesday morning, authorities said. At least 200 people have been charged in connection with the unrest in the nation’s capital, the capstone of former President Donald Trump’s baseless attempts to overturn the election results.

The FBI said it was tipped off to videos posted on social media that indicated both Bonet and Ortiz were in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. They included videos on Bonet’s Facebook page showing him inside the Capitol and videos posted to Ortiz’s Instagram account showing his perspective while walking with a crowd through a Capitol hallway and yelling “Onward, Onward!” court papers said.

Ortiz was released into the custody of his father after an initial court appearance Wednesday evening. Bonet was released after a court appearance in Albany. Judges restricted both men’s travel to the areas of New York where they live and said they could only go to Washington for court hearings. Ortiz’s lawyer declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left with Bonet’s lawyer.

In one video titled “Made it in,” Bonet can be heard saying: “We’re taking it back! We are taking it back, we made it in the building!” according to court papers.

The Bonet tipster, a person who knew him through mutual friends, said some videos on his Facebook account were deleted, including one that showed him smoking what appeared to be marijuana inside the Capitol.

Bonet, who works as a shift manager for an undisclosed employer in Saratoga Springs, openly talked about government conspiracies at work and about false claims that last year’s presidential election was stolen, court papers said.

The FBI said it learned about Ortiz the day after the riot when one of his coworkers ratted him out using the the bureau’s online tip portal. The person, who’d known Ortiz for about five years and followed him on Instagram, pointed agents to his online videos.

Another tipster, a high school classmate of Ortiz’s, showed agents a video from Ortiz’s Instagram account of people scaling walls and large crowds reaching an entrance to the Capitol as a man believed to be Ortiz screamed “Yeah! We’re at the door!” court papers said.

That tipster messaged Ortiz on the app, admonishing him for being at the Capitol and asking him to explain what he was doing there, according to screenshots of the conversation included in court papers.

Ortiz responded that he was, “participating in government,” according to the papers.

When the tipster noted that the FBI was searching for people involved in the riot, the papers said, Ortiz wrote back: “Lol they can come and get me; I didn’t break or vandalize or steal; I walked through and out.”

In a subsequent message, Ortiz added: “I’d storm the Capitol for you any day.”

Florida
Sheriff: Teen wrote threatening song after school suspension
PALM COAST, Fla. (AP) — An 18-year-old high school student in Florida has been arrested after recording a song in which he threatened to kill a school administrator following a suspension, sheriff’s officials said.

Joseph Washington was arrested Tuesday on felony charges of making written threats to kill, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

A judge released the teen from jail Wednesday and his trial is pending, records show.

Washington told investigators he wrote and recorded the song in retaliation for being suspended from Matanzas High School in Palm Coast for a dress code violation and for using offensive language, sheriff’s officials said.

In the song, which was circulated online, Washington can be heard saying he will “gladly do it again,” the sheriff’s office said.

When sheriff’s deputies talked to him, Washington admitted writing and recording the song. He told them “he knew the consequences of his actions could be that he was arrested and charged with a criminal offense,” the sheriff’s statement said.

Washington told investigators he did not intend to carry out any of the threats, and that it was all just a “fantasy,” the statement said. Washington was then arrested.

“To anyone that still thinks saying ‘I was just kidding around or it’s a fantasy’ is going to get them out of being arrested when they threaten someone’s life – let this be a wake-up call,” Sheriff Rick Staly said.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy and we do not take threats like these lightly, especially when it comes to our schools,” Staley said. “If you make threatening statements online, in writing and or even if veiled in songs, you will be arrested.”

Connecticut
Man sentenced for threatening letters sent to Trump, others
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty last year to sending a series of threatening letters and packages targeting former President Donald Trump and facilities in Connecticut and Vermont was sentenced to nine years in federal prison.

Gary Joseph Lavelle, 53, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Connecticut for making numerous hoax threats and for violating the conditions of his supervised release that followed earlier convictions for making similar threats.

Lavelle, also known as Roland Prejean, was arrested in 2018 after suspicious packages were found at four Hartford, Connecticut, buildings including a government office and a courthouse.

Authorities said Lavelle also sent messages threatening to explode facilities in New Haven, a federal prison in Washington, a credit union in Bristol, Connecticut, and planes and property at Burlington International Airport. In early September 2018, Gravelle sent a threatening letter addressed to Trump accompanied by a white powder that Gravelle claimed was anthrax, prosecutors said.

None of the threats were real, prosecutors said, but the hoaxes caused disruptions including the evacuation of buildings.

Gravelle, whose last address was in New Haven, has been incarcerated since his 2018 arrest and had previously been in prison for sending threatening messages.

He is currently imprisoned at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island. Defense attorney Joseph Patten Brown  told The New York Times that he hopes his client, who has a history of mental illness, can serve his sentence at a hospital.