Palatka man faces misdemeanor charges in U.S. Capitol riot, adding to list of Floridians

As presidential election campaigning intensifies nationwide, a Putnam County man is facing charges for his part in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot over the last election.

Dylan Swinehart was arrested last week in Palatka on four misdemeanor charges, about 10 months after court documents say he acknowledged to an investigator being part of a crowd recorded inside the Capitol that was driven out by police.

“This is me,” reads a note dated last October over Swinehart’s name next to a hard-to-decipher crowd picture that was part of a court filing laying out the basis for charging him with entering and remaining in restricted grounds as well as counts involving disorderly conduct and demonstrating in the Capitol.

Swinehart is scheduled for an appearance Thursday through a video teleconference with a federal judge in Washington, having briefly faced a judge in Jacksonville last week. The charges carry potential sentences of six months or a year behind bars.

A long list: Capitol riot arrests: See who's been charged across the U.S.

More than 125 other Floridians had already been charged in the riot, accordsing to USA TODAY Network reporting.

A filing called a statement of facts charged that Swinehart entered the Capitol through a door that other rioters had pushed open where an alarm was blaring.

Police faced off with rioters at the other end of a hallway and after about two minutes the crowd was pushed back outside, including Swinehart, who like others in the crowd had a cell phone raised over his head to get photos or video, the document said.

The document said that brush with police happened about 50 minutes after both houses of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence began evacuating a special session held that day to certify the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, where voters chose President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump.

The filing said Swinehart didn't enter the building again and told an investgator he threw away a hooded sweatshirt he wore tha day because it was drenched in chemicals police sprayed that day. It said investigators tracked him down because data obtained through a federal search warrant served on Google showed a device tied to the Florida man was active near the Capitol the day of the riot.

The Capitol riot was invoked repeatedly during this month’s Democratic National Convention , where Vice President Kamala Harris, this year's nominee, told crowds that “Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes. When he failed, he sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers.”

By last month, close to 1,500 people had been charged with some crime tied to the riot, including about 530 charged with felonies involving assaulting or impeding law enforcement, the U.S. Justice Department said .

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Palatka man faces misdemeanor charges in U.S. Capitol riot, adding to list of Floridians