Pardoned Jan. 6 Defendant Found Guilty of Simple Assault

Bryan Betancur, a resident of Silver Spring, Maryland, was convicted in Washington, D.C., Superior Court for a simple assault charge. He faced this charge after an incident on a Metro Red Line train where he touched a woman’s hair and posted the incident on social media.

The court found Betancur guilty of surreptitiously touching the woman’s hair in February. The judge commented that this behavior was unsettling. The victim, who appeared in the video, shared her distress in court. She expressed how the incident affected her feelings of safety in public. The repeated thought of the video impacted her daily commute, making her feel paranoid and exposed.

She explained, “It was very upsetting and unsettling to see someone had touched me and posted about it on the internet without my consent.”

The maximum penalty for Betancur’s misdemeanor is 180 days in jail. Since his arrest in April, he has already served 125 days due to a bail violation. Prosecutors plan to seek additional jail time. Apart from imprisonment, a $1,000 fine is a possibility. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Betancur also faces a stalking charge in Washington, D.C., and another assault and battery charge in Arlington, Virginia. The Arlington incident parallels the current case, where Betancur reportedly livestreamed himself touching another woman’s hair on a train.

The FBI reports that Betancur is a self-professed white supremacist. He was previously photographed with a Confederate flag during the Capitol insurrection on January 6. At the time, Betancur was on parole for burglary charges, wearing an ankle monitor. Though sentenced to jail, he later received a pardon from President Donald Trump.