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The Lindstrom area residents charged in connection with the mob breach into the U.S. Capitol building January 6 2021 — disrupting validation of election results  by Congress— have had their trial date pushed back.  

One defendant was charged in March 2021 and three others September 2021.   Aaron James, Isaac Westbury, Jonah Westbury and Robert Westbury, all of Lindstrom, had previously been set for trial May 23.

This date has now been rescheduled for November 18, 2024.  

US Judge Rudolph Contreras has this scheduled as a bench trial (no longer to be a jury trial.)  

The four men: father Robert, and Isaac and Jonah, his two sons, and stepson Aaron James, have  fought being tried for three years. Counts range from misdemeanor disorderly conduct  to felony level use of a weapon and assaulting an officer.  Their counsel has represented variously—that they were simply exercising freedom of speech, they tried dismissing charges based on being in a public space, they have also sought a change of venue for the trial, and the latest action filed was asking Judge Contreras  to dismiss a superseding indictment that came down January of this year that added one count of misconduct.   They have also been granted delays to add and/or dismiss attorneys and  that incoming counsel needed time to get familiar with their case.

None of the local defendants is being held.  

The US Dept of Justice states that as of May 2024, 1,424 persons have been charged in connection with the riot in Washington D.C. and 820 have entered guilty pleas, with 255 felony and 565 misdemeanor convictions.  The estimated damages to property and expenses assessed to Capitol Police for January 6 are put at $2.8 million.

Video is posted at the FBI website showing footage from the Capitol breach and there is a set of suspects still being sought by authorities.  Go to www.fbi.gov/wanted/capitol-violence.

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