by The FBI is searching for a Florida woman who was supposed to stand trial Monday on charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, as well as another riot defendant who also disappeared, authorities said.
A federal judge in Washington issued warrants for the arrest of Olivia Pollock and Joseph Hutchinson III last week after the court was notified they had tampered with or removed ankle monitors that track their locations, said Joe Boland, a special agent Supervisor of the FBI Office in Lakeland, Florida.
Boland said the FBI recovered one of the defendants’ ankle monitors after it was removed, but he declined to say whether it was Pollock’s or Hutchinson’s. As of Monday afternoon, the FBI had not located any of them, he said.
Olivia Pollock, of Lakeland, is the sister of another January 6 defendant, Jonathan Pollock, who has been on the run for months. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $30,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her brother, who is accused of assaulting several police officers during the riot.
Olivia Pollock and Hutchinson were initially arrested in 2021 and charged in a five-person indictment with assaulting police and other crimes. Hutchinson is representing himself at trial, and a lawyer appointed to help him as standby counsel declined to comment Monday.
Olivia Pollock’s attorney, Elita Amato, said Monday that her client “had been diligently assisting in her defense for her upcoming trial prior to her disappearance.”
Authorities encouraged anyone with information on his whereabouts to contact the FBI.
Olivia Pollock, who was wearing a ballistic plate carrier during the riot, is accused of elbowing an officer in the chest and trying to grab his baton during the melee. Jonathan Pollock is charged with shoving a riot shield into an officer’s face and throat, pushing an officer down stairs and beating others.
Authorities say Hutchinson removed a fence that allowed other rioters to surround police trying to defend the Capitol, punched one officer and grabbed another’s sleeve before shoving him out of the way.
Hutchinson, who now lives in Georgia, was scheduled to face trial in August. The judge also rescheduled Olivia Pollock’s trial for August.
Also Monday, a Colorado man pleaded guilty to using a chemical spray to attack police officers trying to keep the mob at bay.
Robert Gieswein, of Woodland Park, Colorado, is scheduled to be sentenced June 9. Estimated sentencing guidelines for Gieswein recommend a prison sentence ranging from three years and five months to four years and three months, depending on his guilty plea.
Gieswein was wearing a helmet, body armor, goggles and carrying a baseball bat when he stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He marched on the building from the Washington Monument with members of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys.
Gieswein repeatedly sprayed “irritant spray” at police officers, pushed through a line of police officers and was one of the first rioters to enter the Capitol, according to a court filing accompanying his guilty plea to the assault charges.
Federal authorities have said Gieswein appeared to be a supporter of the Three Percenters militia movement and headed a private paramilitary training group called the Woodland Wild Dogs.
Nearly 1,000 people have so far been charged in the riot. Sentences range from probation for people who have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors to 10 years in prison for a retired New York Police Department officer who used a metal pole to assault an officer.
