Biddeford man sentenced to more than 4 years for assaulting police during Jan. 6 Capitol riot

Nov. 18—A Biddeford man has been sentenced to a little more than four years in federal prison for assaulting police in 2021 while storming the U.S. Capitol.

Christopher Maurer, 47, was ordered Monday to serve 50 months behind bars, two years of probation and pay the federal government $2,000 in restitution, according to court records.

Maurer appeared before Chief Judge James Boasberg at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday afternoon. His sentencing was only accessible in person, and because he represented himself, there was no one available to speak on his behalf about the judge's decision.

He has been in jail since his arrest in February 2023. He was briefly held in Maine before being transferred to Washington, D.C., in May 2023.

Maurer pleaded guilty in July to one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon. In exchange for his plea, federal prosecutors agreed to drop eight other charges against him, including civil disorder and entering restricted grounds.

During the Jan. 6, 2021, event, Maurer "personally pushed against officers, attempted to rob them of their protective equipment (their riot shields), sprayed them with chemical irritants, threw two sticks at them, whipped at them with a cord, and verbally threatened them," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaitlin Klamann wrote in court records.

He is one of more than 1,500 people nationally who have been charged with crimes stemming from the riot, including at least 15 with ties to Maine.

Klamann said Maurer, who was enlisted in the U.S. Marines for less than five years before a "less than honorable" discharge, should have known better. She asked the judge to impose a slightly higher 4 1/2 year sentence, saying that despite his plea, Maurer has not expressed any remorse.

"Maurer had many choices on January 6, 2021 other than to attack police officers who were defending the United States Capitol," she wrote. "His crimes were not motivated by necessity, abuse, neglect, or addiction, but instead by anger that his preferred candidate lost an election."

She said he was "frequently uncooperative with and even antagonistic toward" the probation officer who also wrote a sentencing recommendation, which was not publicly available Tuesday.

Maurer represented himself on Monday, after cycling through five appointed attorneys and one he briefly retained himself.

His last attorney, Amy Collins, wrote to the court in August that there had been an "irreparable breakdown in communications" with Maurer, according to court records.

Maurer did not submit his own written request for sentencing by the Oct. 30 deadline. Little is known about him other than what Klamann included in her report. He is a father to three adult children, she said, and was working in construction at the time of his offense.

When he was arrested, police said they believed Maurer had been living out of his car but was previously renting a place in Biddeford.

He was given extra time to prepare for his sentencing after writing Boasberg a letter on Oct. 1, stating he had not yet received video evidence from prosecutors to help with his defense. In that note he appears to suggest he still wanted a trial, even though he had accepted a plea deal months earlier on July 23, according to court records. He was represented by two attorneys during the plea.

"In the short time Ms. Collins represented me, her focus was on a plea deal and not my desire for a bench trial. So I find myself again without counsel and sentencing approaching," Maurer said in the handwritten letter. "I do not have any way of adequately giving my closing statement or accounts of that day to defend or explain the circumstances surrounding them."

In court records, Klamann disputed Maurer's account. She said that Collins had confirmed she left all evidence with Maurer. She said that the jail also confirmed he was given a laptop on Oct. 18 so that he could view the evidence.

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