A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday making it harder to charge Jan. 6 defendants with obstruction could affect a handful of the more than four dozen Illinoisans charged so far, including a Chicago man who entered then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s private office and stole a staffer’s wallet and cherished photo.
The justices ruled 6-3 that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding, enacted in 2002 in response to the financial scandal that brought down Enron Corp., must include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents.
Only about a quarter of the more than 1,300 people arrested in the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have faced the obstruction count, which is Section 1512(c)2 of the U.S. criminal code.
Among them is Kevin Lyons, a North Side HVAC repairman who was the first Chicagoan to be arrested on charges stemming from the Capitol riot, court records show.
Lyons was sentenced to 51 months in prison last year after being convicted in a stipulated bench trial of violating the obstruction law, as well as a handful of misdemeanors.
Court records show Lyons has appealed his conviction, alleging his lawyer did not properly inform him how to challenge the obstruction statute. A hearing on the appeal is scheduled for next month in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., court records show.
Lyons, 44, is serving his time at a federal prison in Milan, Michigan, and is due to be released in December 2026, records show. His attorney did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Another case that could be overturned due to the high court’s ruling is that against Thomas Adams Jr., a Springfield man who pleaded guilty last year to charges alleging he stormed the floor of the U.S. Senate on Jan. 6 and later told a reporter outside the building it was a “really fun time.”
Adams was sentenced to 14 months behind bars and surrendered on Aug. 23, 2023. He was released in January pending his appeal of the constitutionality of the 1512(c)2 statute, records show.
Adams’ attorney also could not immediately be reached.
The Supreme Court’s ruling, meanwhile, returned the case of former Pennsylvania police Officer Joseph Fischer to a lower court to determine if Fischer can be charged with obstruction. Fischer has been indicted for his alleged role in disrupting Congress’ certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over incumbent Donald Trump.
It’s unclear how the court’s decision will affect the criminal case against Trump in Washington, where the former president faces charges stemming from the insurrection, including obstruction. Special counsel Jack Smith has previously said the charges faced by the former president would not be affected.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the court’s opinion, joined by conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas, and by liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Reading the obstruction statute broadly “would also criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists to decades in prison,” Roberts wrote.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett dissented, along with Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
Barrett, one of three justices appointed by Trump, wrote that the law clearly encompasses the events of Jan. 6. “The riot forced Congress to suspend the proceeding, delaying it for several hours,” she wrote.
In Lyons’ case, he admitted in a statement of facts that he publicly posted his car route from Chicago to Washington the day before the riot, writing, “I’m heading to DC to STOP THE STEAL.”
On Jan. 6, he recorded himself throughout the day and texted updates to others while weathering tear gas and flash-bangs as rioters broke into the building after a rally hosted by then-President Donald Trump, according to the statement.
“We’re storming the Capitol building,” he said, according to the statement. “I guess we’re all going to jail.”
He called the riot an “(expletive) revolution” as he ascended stairs to the Capitol’s Senate Wing doors, court records show. Once inside, the man goaded politicians hiding nearby while sharing chants with the mob.
“Nancy, where are you?” he said, referring to the California representative who then led the Democrat House majority.
He then found her ransacked office on the second floor and called out her name again, stopping to take a photo of the plaque outside the door, the statement said. He posted the photo to Instagram with the caption, “WHOS HOUSE?!?!? OUR HOUSE!!” but took it down after about an hour.
Inside Pelosi’s office, Lyons walked around and caught his own image reflected in a mirror, screenshots shared on the court records show. He saw a gray, wool coat hanging from a coat rack as a news show on a television screen covered the mob storming the Capitol.
“Anyone need a coat?” he said.
According to court records, he reached into the coat’s pockets and pulled out a brown, leather wallet belonging to one of Pelosi’s staffers. The wallet contained about $50, a TSA PreCheck card, two bank cards and a driver’s license. Lyons never returned it, according to the statement.
Lyons entered Pelosi’s personal office next, the statement of facts said. There, he removed a framed photograph of Pelosi with the civil rights icon John Lewis, the late U.S. representative. He texted a friend a picture of the photograph to someone else, telling them he was now a felon.
“I took this off Pelosi’s (expletive) desk,” he said. He then snapped another picture of himself with the stolen photo as he left the Capitol in an Uber, according to the statement.
The photo was never found.
The Associated Press contributed.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
