A member of the far-right Proud Boys group — and husband of an Orange County deputy sheriff — was arrested on federal charges Tuesday, accused of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot that left five people dead.
An affidavit said 30-year-old Arthur Jackman, who at one point reportedly served as vice president of the Central Florida Proud Boys, was photographed among various other Proud Boys members outside and inside the Capitol during the attempted insurrection. His arrest brings the number of Floridians so far charged in the attack to at least 31.
Jackman faces charges of obstructing official proceedings before Congress and entering restricted grounds to impede or obstruct government business, records show. He faces up to 11 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, if convicted.
He arrived at a 2 p.m. hearing at the federal courthouse in downtown Orlando wearing a shirt that said “Proud Boys Did Nothing Wrong” that was later turned inside-out when he left the building. He was later released on a $25,000 unsecured bond.
(Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)
Jackman is also barred from owning or possessing guns while he faces trial, including those of his wife, Orange County Deputy Sarah Jackman. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said she was working the day of the attempted insurrection and that the agency was made aware of Arthur Jackman’s arrest Tuesday morning.
“The FBI has told OCSO there is no evidence or indication that she had anything to do with the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6 or is a member of any extremist organization,” the sheriff’s office said in an email.
Jackman didn’t answer reporters’ questions while he waited for a ride from the courthouse.
Authorities say he was among the thousands who descended on Washington, D.C., to stop the certification of November’s election, fueled by lies of voter fraud and election rigging by then-President Donald Trump and his allies after he lost his reelection bid to President Joe Biden.
An FBI affidavit said Jackman had been photographed alongside Joseph Biggs, a prominent Proud Boys organizer from Ormond Beach, who was recently indicted for allegedly helping plan the attack on the Capitol.
Dominic Pezzola, another Proud Boys member, used a riot shield taken from Capitol Police to break windows of the Capitol building, allowing himself and other rioters to flood inside, authorities have said.
The affidavit doesn’t accuse Jackman of participating in the destruction, but says he “did unlawfully enter or remain in the U.S. Capitol as a direct result of others’ destruction of federal property.”
Later in January, a person described as a longtime friend of Jackman’s reported to the FBI that Jackman had texted the friend a photo of himself inside the Capitol, which another witness confirmed.
The photo and a video the FBI also obtained showed Jackman making the OK hand gesture, which is commonly used by Proud Boys members.
In an interview with federal agents, Jackman confirmed he’d been a Proud Boys member since 2016 and had been in Washington on the day of the riot, but had “no comment” on whether he’d entered the Capitol.
He claimed the Proud Boys members had not gone there to infiltrate the Capitol and “it was not a sanctioned Proud Boys event,” FBI agents wrote.
Jackman’s tenure as vice president of the group’s Central Florida chapter was reported by Jacob Engels, a far-right writer with ties to the Proud Boys and longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.
Federal authorities have said Biggs helped plan and prepare for the insurrection, encouraging Proud Boys members to travel to D.C., helping raise funds for travel expenses and obtaining “paramilitary gear and supplies — including tactical vests, protective equipment and radio equipment.”
Google records showed that a device associated with Jackman’s account had entered the Capitol around 2:14 on Jan. 6 and had traveled to various spots within the Senate wing of the building, the affidavit said. Images included in the affidavit appeared to show Jackman in the Senate chamber.
At the “Stop the Steal” rally earlier in the day, Trump urged supporters to “fight like hell” against the loss. The crowd marched to the Capitol complex, which hundreds soon overran, forcing lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to flee for safety as rioters stormed the building.
Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died.
Among the 31 arrests listed by the U.S Department of Justice are at least two dozen from the Middle District of Florida, which covers areas surrounding Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Myers, Naples, Ocala and Jacksonville.
Included in the Central Florida arrests are a Sanford firefighter and members of far-right organizations like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia.
A February analysis by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism found about 25% of the hundreds charged in the Capitol riot to that point were linked to extremist groups.
Biggs and alleged Oath Keepers member Kenneth Harrelson are two from Central Florida with relationships with such groups.
Kelly Meggs, a Dunnellon man described as the Florida leader of the Oath Keepers, boasted in online messages before the riot about having “organized an alliance” with the Proud Boys and another extremist group, the Three Percenters, court filings show.
While others charged in the riot may not have had extremist ties, they were ardent Trump supporters who purported to believe the false claims he and others promoted about the election. Dillon Homol, a 22-year-old from Cocoa Beach, was charged in connection to the attack after classmates who saw live videos of him at the Capitol turned him in to the FBI.
According to the federal criminal complaint, he told investigators he believed Trump was leading the charge to stop lawmakers from certifying the election.
“American people are sick and tired of it, we’re tired of it, the communist cops of Washington D.C.,” Homol said in one video clip. “We’re storming the Capitol building. We’re storming the Capitol, this is our country.”
creyes-rios@orlandosentinel.com
