PORTLAND — Todd Tilley was charged Tuesday with four criminal counts in connection with the attack on the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6 last year.
Tilley, who turned 61 earlier this month, lives in South Paris. He has been charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
All four charges are misdemeanors, punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine not to exceed $100,000 for the most serious offenses.
According to court records filed in the U.S. District Court in Portland, Steven Fleenor, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who is assigned to the Maine Joint Terrorism Task Force in Portland, studied video footage and still photographs taken during the Jan. 6 incursion and identified Tilley through those images. In addition, Fleenor’s sworn statement notes that on Jan. 7, 2021, an “individual posted a video titled ‘The Insurrection of The United States Capitol,” to YouTube under the username Jayden X.”
That video was taken down, but Fleenor’s statement said it depicted a large crowd climbing stairs leading to the Upper West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol, people entering the Capitol building through the Senate Wing doors, and crowds walking around inside the Capitol hallways.
“The video captures several clashes with individuals and law enforcement, including the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt outside the Speaker’s Lobby, adjacent to the House chambers,” Fleenor said. In the minutes leading up to the shooting, the video “showed rioters attempting to breach the door to the House Chamber. The camera then pans to individuals standing in the hallway just outside the House chamber and captures an individual wearing glasses and a red hooded sweatshirt,” at 2:38 p.m., he said.
Fleenor interviewed Tilley’s brother on Aug. 20 last year and showed him the picture from the Jayden X video, and Tilley’s brother identified the person in the picture as Todd Tilley.
“Tilley’s brother further indicated that he was aware that Tilley attended the rally prior to the Capitol riot but did not know whether Tilley had entered the Capitol building,” Fleenor said. The brother provided the FBI with a screenshot of text messages sent between the brothers during the midst of the incursion.
According to court records, Todd Tilley shared photos with his brother, who asked him if he was there. Tilley replied: “Yes. Pence screwed us over.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate were meeting — at 1 p.m. in a joint session — to certify the Electoral College vote count for the 2020 presidential election. A half-hour later, they briefly adjourned to their respective chambers.
According to Fleenor’s affidavit, Vice President Mike Pence had been presiding over the joint session and was presiding in the Senate chamber when a large crowd gathered outside the Capitol. Barricades had been set up around the building, and its exterior doors were locked.
At 2 p.m., members of the crowd forced their way into the Capitol through doors and breaking windows, and were filmed assaulting members of the U.S. Capitol Police. Within 20 minutes, members of the House and Senate evacuated the chambers.
According to Fleenor’s statement of facts, the FBI obtained photos of Tilley helping another person climb a wall to reach the stairs leading to the Upper West Terrace. Closed circuit video and photographs showed Tilley entering the first floor of the Capitol through the Senate Wing doors at 2:24 p.m., minutes after the chambers were evacuated.
In that photo, Tilley is seen using his cellphone.
The FBI was able to track Tilley’s phone inside the Capitol, confirming it was his phone number with the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department and the Maine Department of Labor, where Tilley had used that number to file an unemployment claim.
Additional closed circuit video shows Tilley entering the Crypt from the north side and walking near the Capitol’s Memorial Door to the south, before he and others were turned back by law enforcement officers.
He was photographed in crowds in a number of other places inside the Capitol and left the building at 2:53 p.m.
In all, the FBI included eight images of Tilley outside and inside the Capitol building, along with a video showing “Tilley joining with the crowd in shouting, ‘Stop the steal,'” in Fleenor’s statement, which was used to prove probable cause for an arrest warrant.
According to Fleenor, the images and the statement by Tilley’s brother were enough probable cause to charge him with the four misdemeanor crimes.
The arrest warrant was signed on Thursday last week and Tilley was taken into custody Tuesday.
According to Kristen Setera, of the FBI Boston Division’s Office of Public Affairs, Tilley made his initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland and was released. He is scheduled to appear through a virtual hearing in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, June 28.
In 1986, Tilley was convicted of rape in the first degree in the Bronx borough of New York City, and sentenced to serve between two and six years in prison, followed by a period of probation. He is a lifetime registrant on the Maine Sexual Offender Registry.
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