Retired Cop Gets 18 Months Over Tarrio Ties \ Newslooks \ Washington DC \ Mary Sidiqi \ Evening Edition \ Former D.C. police lieutenant Shane Lamond was sentenced to 18 months in prison for obstructing justice and lying about leaking investigation details to Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio. Prosecutors said Lamond tipped off Tarrio about a probe into the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner. The judge rejected both men’s testimony, calling it unreliable.
Quick Looks
- Retired DC officer Shane Lamond sentenced to 18 months in prison
- Convicted of obstruction and making false statements to federal agents
- Accused of leaking banner burning probe details to Enrique Tarrio
- Judge found Lamond acted as insider for Proud Boys leader
- Tarrio called on President Trump to pardon Lamond after sentencing
- Prosecutors say Lamond’s actions betrayed police department’s mission
Deep Look
A retired Washington, D.C., police officer at the center of a political firestorm was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison for lying to federal agents and obstructing justice in a case involving leaked law enforcement information to Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the far-right Proud Boys group.
The sentencing of 47-year-old Shane Lamond by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson came after a bench trial in December in which Lamond was found guilty on one count of obstruction and three counts of making false statements to investigators. The judge, in a scathing opinion, concluded that Lamond actively worked to protect Tarrio from being arrested over the burning of a stolen Black Lives Matter banner in 2020.
Lamond, who had served 23 years with the Metropolitan Police Department before retiring in May 2023, once held a top post in the department’s Homeland Security Bureau. There, he oversaw intelligence-gathering on extremist groups like the Proud Boys. But according to the court, Lamond crossed the line when he warned Tarrio that a warrant for his arrest had been signed—effectively tipping off a suspect under investigation.
“This is not just a matter of bad judgment,” prosecutors argued. “Lamond’s lies were deliberate and calculated to protect someone he viewed favorably and to conceal his own misconduct.”
Text messages presented during the trial showed Lamond offering real-time updates to Tarrio about the department’s investigation into the December 2020 incident, in which Tarrio burned a Black Lives Matter banner taken from a historically Black church in Washington.
“Of course I can’t say it officially,” Lamond wrote to Tarrio in one exchange, “but personally I support you all and don’t want to see your group’s name and reputation dragged through the mud.”
Tarrio himself was present at the sentencing and later addressed reporters outside the courthouse, calling on President Donald Trump and the Justice Department to intervene. “I ask that the Justice Department and the President of the United States step in and correct the injustice that I just witnessed inside this courtroom,” he said.
Tarrio, who previously pleaded guilty to the banner burning and was later convicted of orchestrating a broader plot to disrupt the 2020 presidential election results, has remained a divisive figure in ongoing debates over political extremism and law enforcement accountability.
Throughout the trial, Lamond’s legal team argued that he gained nothing personally from his communications with Tarrio and was merely using him as an intelligence source to help the city monitor potential unrest. “He sought, albeit in a sloppy and ineffective way, to gain information that would help stop violent protesters from flooding into D.C.,” his attorneys wrote in their sentencing brief.
But Judge Jackson rejected that defense, emphasizing that Lamond’s behavior after the banner-burning incident no longer resembled the work of a police officer trying to gather intel. “It was the other way around,” she said in court, concluding that Lamond had effectively become a conduit for Tarrio, not the other way around.
Lamond testified that he never gave Tarrio confidential information and did not know he had committed the banner-burning act. Tarrio, who appeared as a defense witness, also denied receiving inside tips or confessing to Lamond. But the judge ruled both men’s testimonies lacked credibility.
During the investigation, prosecutors pointed to Lamond’s text exchanges with Tarrio discussing potential fallout from the January 6th Capitol riot. While Tarrio did not participate in the riot directly—having been arrested days earlier—he was later convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in organizing the Proud Boys’ efforts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
The indictment against Lamond noted that he and Tarrio communicated about the possibility of charges for group members and the broader public perception of the Proud Boys following the attack. Despite this, Lamond told investigators that his communications were standard and professionally motivated.
“I don’t support the Proud Boys, and I’m not a Proud Boys sympathizer,” Lamond testified during his trial. “I considered Tarrio a source, not a friend.”
Nonetheless, the court found that Lamond had taken actions consistent with shielding Tarrio from accountability. He was not charged for providing information about the Capitol riot but for obstructing an earlier criminal investigation involving Tarrio.
Lamond’s sentencing adds another layer to the ongoing legal fallout surrounding the Proud Boys and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. It also raises fresh concerns about insider sympathies within law enforcement and the ethical boundaries that must govern police relationships with extremist figures.
Retired Cop Gets Retired Cop Gets Retired Cop Gets
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