After 7 weeks in jail with no bail hearing, man accused in Capitol unrest finally in DC

A photo attached to the criminal complaint purports to show Kyle Fitzsimons charging at a Metropolitan DC police officer. Fitzsimons says he was only trying to defend himself. Left, a photo of him just prior to going to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

WASHINGTON - After spending six weeks at a privately run Rhode Island jail, the Lebanon, Maine, man indicted in the Capitol Unrest of Jan. 6 was finally transferred to the DC Central Detention Facility on Thursday, a jail spokesman said on Friday.

A Feb. 26 10-count indictment against Kyle Fitzsimons, 37, of Gully Oven Road, accuses the husband, father of one and former Hannaford butcher with obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds, act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings, two counts of civil disorder and two counts of inflicting bodily injury on certain officers.

Fitzsimons, 37, waived his right to detention and probable cause hearings in Portland, Maine, on Feb. 11.

He has yet to make a plea in the case, and has still not had a bail hearing. He faces more than 13 years in federal prison if convicted on all charges.

A spokesperson at the federal Public Defenders Office in Washington said on Friday that the case had not been assigned to anyone yet and that they would have no comment.

Fitzsimons was granted representation by a public defender while held at the Cumberland County Jail, but it is unclear whether he had any legal representation while in custody in Rhode Island for a month and a half.

He was arrested at his Gully Oven home on Feb. 4.

Fitzsimons told The Rochester Voice in a Jan. 11 article that he went to the Capitol not to stoke violence, but to protest voting irregularities and support President Trump in efforts to decertify what was seen by many - including a large number of state legislature in five swing states - as an election fraught with statistical anomalies, compromised voting machines and even video evidence that showed ballot counting irregularities.

In the article Fitzsimons said he was unwillingly swept up in a "horde of humanity" outside the Capitol that swept him toward a police line where he was struck on the head.

He said after he was struck he was helped by Good Samaritans who helped him get to a D.C. hospital where he received six stitches for a gash on his head.

He told much the same story to Lebanon selectmen on Jan. 7, a day after the unrest occurred at the Capitol.

According to an affidavit filed in federal court, Fitzsimons twice charged at a line of Metropolitan Police Department officers who managed to fight him off. One struck Fitzsimons on the head with a baton, according to the FBI's affidavit, which said he charged at a line of officers.

Fitzsimons is well known in Lebanon as a second-amendment activist. He also served as a member on the town's Cannabis Committee.