Federal jury convicts Gig Harbor businessman for role in Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot
Federal jurors convicted a Gig Harbor businessman in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Prosecutors charged David Charles Rhine, who lives in Bremerton, with four misdemeanor crimes. Court records show the jury returned guilty verdicts on all four charges Monday, convicting Rhine of entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
He’s been released on his own recognizance and has a virtual sentencing hearing for Sept. 11, according to court records.
Attorneys listed for Rhine did not respond to The News Tribune’s request for comment.
The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia says the address of Rhine’s business is in Gig Harbor, but the complaint doesn’t identify it “due to the public nature of this filing,” a footnote says.
The complaint gives this account of what happened:
Investigators got tips that Rhine was in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Cellphone data confirmed that.
Surveillance cameras showed Rhine carrying cowbells and a blue flag with white stars in the building. A Capitol police officer stopped Rhine and found he had two knives and pepper spray on him. The officer put him in flex cuffs, then released him and told him to leave. Someone else removed the flex cuffs, and Rhine left the building.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a news release Wednesday about a separate Jan. 6 defendant’s sentencing that “more than 1,000 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol,” and that the investigation is ongoing.
