A retired police officer who lied to authorities about giving the former senior leader of the extremist group Proud Boys, who was being investigated for burning a Black Lives Matter flag in the nation’s capital, sensitive information was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Friday.
When Shane Lamond was a lieutenant with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., he informed Enrique Tarrio, the national chairman of the Proud Boys at the time, about the department’s investigation into banner burning.
Lamond was found guilty of one count of obstructing justice and three counts of making false statements by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., last December following a trial without a jury.
Tarrio later demanded that Trump pardon Lamond after attending his sentence.
Following the sentencing, Tarrio remarked outside the courthouse, “I request that the President of the United States and the Justice Department intervene and rectify the injustice that I just witnessed inside this courtroom.”
Lamond was recommended to serve four years in jail by the prosecution.
“Because Lamond knew what he did was wrong, he lied to cover it up — not just to the Federal Agents who questioned his actions, but to this Court,” they stated. “This is an egregious obstruction of justice and a betrayal of the work of his colleagues at MPD.”
Lamond’s attorneys contended that incarceration was not necessary.
“Mr. Lamond gained nothing from his communications with Mr. Tarrio and only sought, albeit in a sloppy and ineffective way, to gain information and intelligence that would help stop the violent protesters coming to D.C. in late 2020, early 2021,” they stated.
In December 2020, Tarrio entered a guilty plea to burning the banner that had been taken from a historic Black church in downtown Washington.
Two days prior to the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by dozens of Proud Boys members, he was detained.
Although Tarrio wasn’t present at the Capitol on that particular day, he was found guilty by a jury of planning a violent conspiracy to retain President Donald Trump in office following his loss in the 2020 election.
During his bench trial, Lamond stated that he never gave Tarrio private police information. Tarrio, a witness for Lamond’s defense, stated that he did not receive any secret information from Lamond and did not confess to him about burning the banner.
However, neither man’s testimony was deemed credible by the judge. According to Jackson, the evidence showed that following the banner burning on December 12, 2020, Lamond was no longer using Tarrio as a source.
“It was the other way around,” she stated.
After 23 years of service with the police department, Lamond, a resident of Colonial Beach, Virginia, retired in May 2023.
Lamond had overseen the Homeland Security Bureau’s intelligence division until meeting Tarrio in 2019. When groups like the Proud Boys visited Washington, he was in charge of keeping an eye on them.
According to the prosecution, Lamond informed Tarrio that an arrest warrant had been issued. They cited messages indicating that Lamond gave Tarrio up-to-date information on the police inquiry.
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According to Lamond’s indictment, he and Tarrio corresponded on the disturbance on January 6 and whether Proud Boys members faced charges related to the assault.
“Of course I can’t say it officially, but personally I support you all and don’t want to see your group’s name and reputation dragged through the mud,” Lamond stated.
Following Tarrio’s burning of a stolen Black Lives Matter sign in December 2020, Lamond expressed his displeasure that a prosecutor had called him a Proud Boys “sympathizer” who served as a “double agent” for the group.
Lamond testified, “I don’t support the Proud Boys, and I’m not a Proud Boys sympathizer.”
According to Lamond, he viewed Tarrio as a source rather than a buddy. However, he claimed that in order to earn the gang leader’s trust, he made an effort to establish a cordial relationship.
