A 44-year-old Palmyra man has been convicted of 10 felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from his participation in the violent Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol.
Leo Brent Bozell IV was found guilty on Sep. 8 by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates after a non-jury trial in District of Columbia federal court.
The charges included obstructing an official proceeding, unlawfully entering restricted buildings and grounds, and disorderly conduct.
Bates has scheduled sentencing for Jan. 9.
Bozell and other supporters of losing Republican candidate Donald Trump were seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential victory in the 2020 election by preventing a joint session of Congress from certifying Biden as the winner.
Bozell, the son of nationally known conservative activist Brent Bozell III, was identified on the floor of the U.S. Senate by a Hershey Christian Academy hoodie he was wearing.
The FBI and prosecutors initially reported that multiple tipsters identified Bozell, and that at least one said that Bozell’s children attended the school. Hershey Christian has denied that Bozell was ever employed by or affiliated with the school.
According to a U.S. Justice Department press release, trial evidence showed that “[w]hen Bozell reached the Senate Wing doors, Bozell bashed an exterior windowpane ten times with a hard object, causing it to crack and break. Bozell moved a couple feet over to another window directly north of the Senate Wing Door, and bashed that window eleven times until glass shattered. At about 2:15 p.m., Bozell, with scores of other rioters, clambered through the window that he helped break.”
Evidence also showed that, while in the Senate chambers, Bozell climbed over a railing and pointed a camera toward the floor to avoid being recorded, according to the release.
The court’s online docket indicates that Bozell took the witness stand in his own defense, but no transcript of his testimony was available at publication time.
In his trial brief filed with the court shortly before trial, Bozell said that his motive for attending a “Stop The Steal” rally of Trump supporters “had nothing to do with the political event” and was “not to join the large crowd that departed en masse for [the Capitol],” but rather that he “went in the direction of the Capitol because he had parked his car on the east side of the Capitol building.”
“As a longtime resident of the Washington D.C. metro area in his younger years,” the brief continued, “Mr. Bozell was familiar with the physical layout of the District, he knew where he could easily park notwithstanding the very large event planned for the area of the Mall, and he knew where he could depart from without encountering much traffic difficulty to return home.”
The felony obstruction charge carries a possible 20-year jail sentence along with financial penalties. The misdemeanor convictions carry a combined statutory maximum of 3½ years of imprisonment and financial penalties.
Bozell is the fourth Lebanon County resident to face Jan. 6 insurrection charges, and the second to be convicted.
In September 2021, Myerstown resident Terry Brown pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor and was sentenced to 36 months of probation, with the first on house arrest.
Joseph Fischer, a former North Cornwall Township police officer, and Cameron Hess, of Cleona, are awaiting trial on various Jan. 6 charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.
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