‘One of the most violent’: California man who shocked officer during Capitol riot gets more than 12 years

Rodriguez grew up with an absent father, and had come to see Trump as “the father he wished he had,” Rodriguez’s attorney, Rene Valladares, wrote in a sentencing brief filed with the court.

A Panorama City man who advocating violence before the Capitol insurrection and used an electroshock weapon on a police officer in the midst of the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Wednesday, June 21, to 12 years and seven months in federal prison.

Daniel Joseph Rodriguez, 40, was sentenced after U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson described him as a “one-man army of hate, attacking police and destroying property (and showing) up in D.C. spoiling for a fight.”

It was the harshest sentence yet for a Jan. 6 defendant with a strong Southern California tie.

Rodriguez had accepted a plea deal and admitted to felony conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, tampering with documents or an official proceeding, and inflicting bodily injury on officers using a dangerous weapon.

A day before the 2021 Capitol riot, he told his followers: “There will be blood. Welcome to the revolution.” Prosecutors described him as “one of the most violent” of the hundreds of insurrection defendants by attacking then-Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone.

Rodriguez bragged about his actions immediately following the riot, posting that he had “Tazzzzzed the (expletive) out of the blue.”

But shortly after his arrest in Fontana, a tearful Rodriguez described himself to a FBI agent as a “piece of (expletive)” when asked why he shocked the officer. When asked why he went to the Capitol, he said: “My story is just that we thought we were going to save America, and we were wrong.”

In an interview with FBI agents after his arrest, Rodriguez described frustration that he and his mother lost an inexpensive house in Fontana. He told the agents that he believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and that he and other Trump supporters were going to be rounded up by their political opposition. According to his attorney, Rodriguez is not married, has no children and has worked in retail, factories and “other low-level employment.” The defense attorney added that before Rodriguez’s arrest, his mother was his constant companion.

Rodriguez was the administrator of a Telegram group chat called “PATRIOTS MAGA Gang” that prosecutors say served as a “breeding ground for Rodriguez’s plans for violence against the seat of the federal government.”

In the lead up to that Jan. 6, Rodriguez and co-defendant Edward Badalian urged others to travel to Washington, D.C., in prosecutors’ words, “to participate in some kind of violent fight on behalf of the former president,” and wrote “hundreds of messages about war and revolution, about traitors and tyrants.”

On the morning of Jan. 6, Rodriguez — wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat — watched a speech by then-President Donald Trump before a large group of the president’s supporters breached the Capitol building, forcing lawmakers to flee for safety and temporarily delaying the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. On the way to the Capitol, Rodriguez was captured on video yelling, “Yeah! We’re (expletive) doing it!” to fellow Jan. 6 defendant Gina Bisignano.

Prosecutors say Rodriguez made his way to the front lines of the rioters trying to break through a police phalanx. He first set off a fire extinguisher toward the officers, then shoved a wooden pole at them, according to court filings. While Rodriguez was encouraging other rioters to go forward, another person tapped him on the shoulder and handed him a small electroshock weapon.

After more than a half-hour of what prosecutors described as “intense, close-contact fighting,” the officers were beginning to push back the rioters. But Officer Fanone, at the front of the defense, was grabbed around his neck by a rioter and dragged down the steps of the Lower West Terrace toward the larger mob.

As Fanone struggled, video footage shows, Rodriguez walked up to the officer and used the device in one of his hands to shock Fanone on the side of his neck, causing him to scream in pain. Rodriguez then shocked Fanone a second time, in the back of the officer’s neck, before turning and walking away.

Fanone made his way back behind the police line before collapsing at the foot of a sergeant, who helped drag him to safety.

Rodriguez then climbed into the Capitol through a broken window and helped ransack restricted rooms, telling others to help him “look for intel.” As he left the building, Rodriguez sent a message to his group chat: “No Democrats found unfortunately” next to the image of a gallows with the U.S. Capitol in the background.

Badalian — Rodriguez’s co-defendant — was convicted in April of conspiracy and obstruction for his role on Jan. 6 following a non-jury trial.

Rodriguez grew up with an absent father, and had come to see Trump as “the father he wished he had,” Rodriguez’s attorney, Rene Valladares, wrote in a sentencing brief filed with the court.

“Mr. Rodriguez believed the former president’s lies and manipulation, just as thousands of others did when they gathered at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, with the understanding they were there on behalf of the president of the United States to protect their government,” she wrote.

“It was this atmosphere of fear, lies and uncertainty, created by former President Trump, that compelled Mr. Rodriguez to take a stand against the claimed corruption that resulted in a ‘stolen’ election,” Valladares’ brief continued. “It was Mr. Rodriguez’s unwavering belief in the words of the former president that drove him to lose all sense of right and wrong and led him to take part in the tragic actions that unfolded in Washington, D.C. on January 6th.”

More than two dozen Southern California residents have been charged in connection to the insurrection.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.