Washington, D.C
Lewiston man in Washington D.C. court on Jan. 6 charges
A man the FBI says is Andre Maurice Bonneau is seen in surveillance footage captured at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
A Lewiston man who faces seven charges stemming from his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. had his first court appearance Tuesday.
Andre “Andy” Maurice Bonneau, 64, was charged in a criminal complaint with felony offenses of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.
In addition to the felonies, Bonneau is charged with misdemeanor offenses of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building or grounds, according to federal court records.
He was arrested on Oct. 3.
Bonneau’s alleged actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election, according to court records.
Bonneau appeared in federal court in Washington, D.C. via videoconference where he was ordered release on his own personal recognizance with conditions that include reporting as soon as possible to the pretrial services or supervising officer for every contact with law enforcement personnel, including arrests, questioning or traffic stops.
He must also notify Pretrial Services in the District Of Maine/Portland in advance of any travel outside of the district and must receive court approval before traveling outside of the continental United States.
Bonneau also is required to surrender any passport or not obtain a passport or other international travel document and not have a firearm, destructive device or other weapon.
His next scheduled court appearance is Dec. 19.
Meanwhile, the judge in his case has ordered that documents provided by prosecutors that are identified as “sensitive” or “highly sensitive” will remain under a protective order that only allows the defendant to review them and only under supervision of the defense attorney, or an investigator, paralegal, or support staff person employed by the defense counsel.
Those documents might include personal identity information, confidential sources, health records, law enforcement methods, tax information and architectural repair estimates.
The FBI was assisted in its arrest of Bonneau by a person in Lewiston who identified him for the investigating agents.
Before retiring three years ago, Bonneau ran a restaurant in Lisbon.
Bonneau was seen in open-source and police body-worn camera footage on Jan. 6, 2021, approaching a bike rack barricade separating officers from rioters on the West Front of Capitol grounds, according to court documents.
Officers had assembled a police line at that location in an effort to prevent rioters from encroaching further on the grounds as the riot developed.
Video footage showed Bonneau allegedly disregarding police orders to “get back,” according to court documents.
Instead, Bonneau apparently turned his back to officers along the line, grabbed the bike rack, and used his body weight to push the bike rack into officers in an apparent attempt to breach the police line.
For about the next 20 seconds, video footage showed Bonneau struggling with officers over the bike rack as he attempted to lift and remove the barricade from the police line.
In response to his actions, officers defended themselves by using their riot batons against and deploying a chemical irritant in Bonneau’s direction.
The officers successfully repelled Bonneau’s advance, and he retreated, according to the documents.