A former Biddeford man has been sentenced to more than four years in prison for his role in the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, 45-year-old Christopher Maurer was sentenced to 50 months in prison after pleading guilty this summer to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon during the January 6 U.S. Capitol breach.
In addition, Maurer will serve 24 months of supervised release and has been ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.
Maurer was among the rioters on the Lower West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol building, the site of some of the most violent attacks against law enforcement that day.
He grabbed onto a police riot shield and attempted to rip it away, helped another rioter use a chemical irritant from a stolen police-issued can of pepper spray and threw stick-like objects at police officers, one of which struck a police officer in the helmet. He also joined a coordinated effort to push against the police line, and repeatedly extended his middle fingers and shouted obscenities at officers.
The FBI arrested Maurer in February 2023 in Maine.
In the time since the riots, more than 1,561 people have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach, including more than 590 people charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
