Charges Filed Against South FL Man Who Assaulted Officer During U.S. Capitol Breach: DOJ

SOUTH FLORIDA — A Tamarac man was arrested Tuesday on charges of assaulting law enforcement and inflicting bodily injury during the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, according to a Department of Justice news release.

The Capitol building storming disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was counting and affirming the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

Mason Joel Courson, 26, is charged with federal offenses that include assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and inflicting bodily injury, civil disorder, and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, among other charges, the DOJ said.

He was arrested in Tamarac and made his first court appearance Wednesday in the Southern District of Florida. He has been detained pending further court proceedings.

Courson and a second defendant, Justin Jersey, 31, of Flint, Michigan, were named as additional defendants in a third, superseding indictment returned on Nov. 17 in the District of Columbia. Jersey was arrested Dec. 2.

The case previously included seven other defendants: Logan James Barnhart of Lansing, Michigan; Michael John Lopatic Sr. of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Ronald Colton McAbee of Unionville, Tennessee; Clayton Ray Mullins of Benton, Kentucky; Jeffrey Sabol of Kittredge, Colorado; Peter Francis Stager of Conway, Arkansas; and Jack Wade Whitton of Locust Grove, Georgia.

All are charged with assaulting law enforcement and related offenses. The superseding indictment adds civil disorder charges against Sabol and Whitton, the DOJ said.

According to the indictment, around 4:30 p.m. Jan. 6, Courson participated in an assault of a Metropolitan Police Department officer who was beaten by a group armed with a baton, flag pole and crutch. Earlier that afternoon, about 3:15 p.m., he also participated in "heave-ho” efforts to advance into the Capitol in the area of the Lower West Terrace tunnel leading into the building, the DOJ said.