Jan. 6 case dismissed 40 days after judge found Luke Coffee guilty of 'assault' on Officer Lila Morris

Texas filmmaker Luke Coffee took a direct blow to the left arm from Metropolitan Police Department Officer Lila Morris on Jan. 6, 2021, yet it was Coffee who was found guilty of assaulting the notorious D.C. officer who seconds later savagely beat Rosanne Boyland with a hardened walking stick, multiple videos viewed by Blaze News showed.

Forty days later, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ordered the case dismissed with prejudice on a motion from the U.S. Department of Justice — now controlled by President Donald J. Trump — drafted by acting U.S. Attorney Edward Martin.

“This journey has been about so much more than ourselves,” Coffee told Blaze News after his case was dismissed. “It has been about standing firm for truth, even when the odds seemed insurmountable. It has been about shining a light on the humanity and dignity of the 1,500-plus J6ers who have endured unimaginable struggles.

“For four years, our lives were turned upside down, and yet, through it all, God has been working — restoring, redeeming, and preparing us for this very moment.”

'Luke Coffee might be dead today, but by the grace of God he was pulled to safety.'

Hero or perpetrator?

At a Dec. 13 hearing to announce the verdicts in Coffee’s bench trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mindy Deranek lionized Morris as a “hero,” a “victim,” and a “valued member of the community” who was honored by the U.S. government for her Jan. 6 actions.

Deranek claimed that Boyland died of an “overdose.”

She failed to mention that the medical examiner’s cause of death — acute amphetamine intoxication from a legal Adderall prescription for ADHD — is hotly contested by the Boyland family. The Boylands’ forensic pathologist ruled that the death was caused by compression asphyxiation and said the amphetamine salts in her system from the prescription medication did not cause her death.

Three hundred twenty-four days after his bench trial before Judge Contreras ended, Coffee was found guilty of civil disorder; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon; trespassing with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Coffee, 45, of Dallas, was found not guilty of disorderly conduct in a capitol building. Two other charges had been previously dropped by prosecutors.

Metropolitan Police Department Officer Lila Morris winds up with a wooden walking stick to strike protester Luke Coffee and a lifeless Rosanne Boyland outside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Department of Justice/Metropolitan Police Department body cam

One of Coffee’s defense attorneys, Carolyn Stewart, said the DOJ moved to have Coffee immediately taken into custody Dec. 13, but Judge Contreras refused.

“The vindictive AUSA Deranek said she wanted to ‘put lies to bed’ while instead further defaming and lying about Lila Morris’ illegal use of lethal force against Boyland and Coffee,” Stewart told Blaze News. “Appallingly, she said the dishonorable Morris was a ‘hero’ who was ‘honored by the government’ for her heroic fighting.

“I felt like vomiting at the lies that the murderer Morris is being called a hero,” Stewart said.

Morris was one of three MPD officers feted as Jan. 6 heroes by the National Football League at Super Bowl LV in Tampa — along with Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges.

“Yes, the lying, unscrupulous DOJ calls the cowardly murder of the woman driven to unconsciousness by the MPD’s illegitimate use of OC [pepper] spray and tear gas in a confined space with no escape route — where the MPD caused a stampede and Morris then beat the unconscious Rosanne — as ‘heroic,’” Stewart said.

Morris and the officers who employed gas in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel about 4:20 p.m. should be tried for murder in Boyland’s death, Stewart said.

“Luke Coffee might be dead today, but by the grace of God he was pulled to safety after being sprayed into unconsciousness by murderers,” she said.

'Stacked two-three deep'

Nearly four years later, Boyland’s death still looms over Jan. 6 like a storm cloud.

She had just wandered into the tunnel at 4:18 p.m. when police released a gas that bystanders said sucked the oxygen out of the air. An officer just inside the doors at the back of the tunnel started firing high-velocity projectiles, including pepper balls — one of which struck Boyland and caused her to fall, witnesses and her parents have said.

The panic from the gas and an aggressive push-out by police with shields caused protesters to spill from the tunnel like a waterfall, with many tumbling down the concrete steps, only to be crushed by layers of bodies, video shows.

“I put my arm underneath her and was pulling her out, and then another guy fell on top of her, and another guy was just walking [on top of her],” Boyland’s friend Justin Winchell told an Atlanta television station in 2021. “There were people stacked two-three deep … people just crushed.”

Capitol Police security video and open-source video from those who surrounded the mouth of the tunnel showed that Coffee stepped front and center and implored police to stop. He had earlier faced the crowd and repeatedly implored them to “Stop!” and “Pray!”

Luke Coffee was repeatedly doused with pepper spray by police outside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Capitol Police CCTV/Blaze News Graphic

Coffee was targeted with heavy streams of pepper spray at least eight times, according to defense attorneys Stewart and Anthony Sabatini.

Morris, who had worked her way to the front of the tunnel and was crouched behind a bystander trying to escape, picked a wooden walking stick from the ground and used it as a weapon rather than employ her department-issued riot stick, video showed.

Morris used a two-handed overhead swing — a defense attorney described the swing “as if using an axe” — to strike Coffee in the left elbow with the walking stick, video showed. She swung at Coffee again but missed.

Then, inexplicably, Morris turned her fury on the lifeless Boyland, who was turning purple from hypoxia. With a two-handed overhead swing, Morris delivered three blows to Boyland’s body in quick succession, striking her head, face, and ribs, video showed.

The beating was so furious that the walking stick flew out of Morris’ hands during the fourth swing, bounced off the top of the archway, and see-sawed onto the ground six feet away.

Metropolitan Police Department Officer Lila Morris strikes protester Luke Coffee at the mouth of the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Video shows Morris then used the wooden walking stick to attack unconscious protester Rosanne Boyland.Metropolitan Police Department: Officer Lila Morris body cam

During cross-examination at Coffee’s trial, Morris said Coffee did not assault her. She said she was trying to defend herself against a man behind Coffee and to his left who wielded a “long stick.”

“Did the man in the center with the cowboy hat ever strike you?” defense attorney Stewart asked.

“Not that I recall,” Morris replied.

Stewart asked the officer how she was trained to use a riot stick.

'I can make sure she is never forgotten.'

“Are you ever trained to hold it like a bat and strike it over somebody's head?” Stewart asked.

“No,” Morris answered.

After she lost the walking stick, Morris turned her back on the crowd and was shortly pulled inside by other MPD officers, video showed. She was carried, kicking and flailing, into the Capitol basement hallway, saying, “I can’t breathe!” bodycam video and Capitol CCTV recordings showed.

Morris was approached by MPD Officer Anthony Walsh, who said, “Take a minute to catch your breath. … Were you pulled out into the crowd?”

“I was in the front. They were pulling me, but they kept jabbing my face with something, hit me, and I couldn’t … I lost my breath and couldn’t breathe,” Morris said just prior to 4:34 p.m., according to Walsh’s bodycam video.

Video showed that no one attempted to pull Morris into the crowd, but a man wearing orange ski goggles repeatedly attempted to smack her with what appeared to be a long wooden dowel. One of the thrusts struck Morris in the face shield, video showed.

Protester Luke Coffee of Dallas holds up a crutch in what he says was an attempt to create a separation between police and the crowd outside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

Coffee twice held up his hand in a “stop” gesture. Coffee picked up a 1.6-pound aluminum crutch and held it over his head. He said it was an effort to make himself as large as possible to be a barrier between police and the crowd.

Security video showed Coffee held the crutch over his head for nine seconds before lowering it to waist level and pushing into the police line like a snowplow. He drove the entire line of officers back and stayed pressed against the front line for 20 seconds, according to prosecutors. After he slipped and fell, Coffee “charged” the line a second time, the DOJ argued.

The body cam of MPD Officer Steven Sajumon shows that once Coffee got back on his feet, he took what appeared to be two quick steps toward Sajumon with the crutch held in front. Coffee said he was blind from being doused with pepper spray. The officer put his right hand on Coffee’s head, pushed him back, and said, “We’re good.”

Coffee said he then tried to switch the crutch into his left hand. Prosecutors claimed it was a “swing” at Sajumon that constituted assault. The officer’s body cam shows his right hand on the tip of the crutch when he said, “We’re good, we’re good.” Judge Contreras found the interaction constituted felony assault by Coffee.

Coffee told Blaze News that Officer Sajumon snapped him out of fight-or-flight mode when he patted him on the head and said, “We’re good.” Coffee then stumbled away, collapsed, and fell unconscious to the ground.

Aaron James and Isaac Westbury help Luke Coffee of Dallas after Coffee fell inside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A short time later, Coffee collapsed and was dragged down the stairs.Metropolitan Police Department body cam

Bodycam video shows Coffee in a supine position being dragged down the steps from the tunnel at 4:29 p.m. Coffee said he was unconscious during this time, until bystanders helped to revive him.

Lindsey Graham, a social media influencer who is known as the Patriot Barbie, testified in Coffee’s trial that when she encountered Coffee at the bottom of the steps, his eyes were swollen shut and he was in serious pain.

“He appeared to me somewhere within a few feet of me, with his face kind of red and swollen and his eyes closed, and he looked in need of help,” Graham said, according to the court transcript. “… What made me notice him was that he looked like he was in distress. He was sweating and crying, and his eyes were closed and his face was red and inflamed.”

Graham said she found bottled water that Coffee used to rinse his eyes, but that didn’t bring relief. Blake McAlavy offered Coffee a bottle of thick green juice to use as a rinse, she said.

“Blake had some kind of green juice in his pocket that he had brought, and he gave Luke some green juice, hoping to help him as well.”

Coffee never struck Officer Morris

Officer Morris testified that Coffee did not touch her with the aluminum crutch, but she felt squeezed in the crowd of officers and had trouble breathing.

At trial, defense attorney Stewart asked, “So the crutch does not hit you?”

“No, it doesn’t hit me,” Morris said.

“Okay,” Stewart replied. “I wanted to check here, because we’re, we’re charged with contact assault.”

At the Dec. 13, 2024, verdict reading, Judge Contreras found Coffee guilty of seven counts, including felony assault on two police officers with the aluminum crutch he picked up off the ground. He found Coffee not guilty on one misdemeanor charge.

'Let’s put these lies to rest right now.'

Judge Contreras ruled that the aluminum crutch qualified as a dangerous weapon and asserted that it was Coffee’s intent to injure officers by pressing them back with the crutch.

Contreras said he did not believe Coffee acted out of concern for Boyland, and he claimed Coffee did not help Boyland get moved to safety after she was struck by Officer Morris.

“Other rioters moved Ms. Boyland out of the tunnel area seconds before Mr. Coffee charged the officers in the tunnel,” Contreras said, “thus highlighting that his attack on the officers in the tunnel was not reasonable or necessary with respect to defending Ms. Boyland, who, by that time, was out of the tunnel and off to the side, well out of harm’s way.”

Luke Coffee holds up a crutch to create separation between police and protesters while bystanders pulled an unconscious Rosanne Boyland to safety outside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Metropolitan Police Department body cam

Video shows, however, that bystanders who rescued Boyland after the beating by Morris pulled her to safety simultaneously to Coffee raising the crutch over his head.

The judge did not mention the beating that Morris doled out to the dying Boyland.

Judge Contreras allowed prosecutor Deranek to put her arguments into the record as to why Coffee should be jailed.

Deranek ripped Coffee and social media commentators for claiming Morris caused Boyland’s death. Deranek contended that online discussion of Morris’ actions made the officer a victim again, in addition to Coffee’s alleged assault on her.

“Let’s put these lies to rest right now,” Deranek said, according to the trial transcript. “Officer Morris had nothing to do with Roseanne [sic] Boyland’s death. Roseanne Boyland was not killed by Officer Morris or any of the other officers defending the Capitol that day. She died of a tragic overdose.”

Deranek then blamed Coffee for the fact that police did not render aid to Boyland. Relying on a New York Times video analysis, Deranek said, “It was in fact the defendant’s actions that prevented the officers from rendering her aid as she lay dying.”

The only contact any police officer had with Boyland before she was pulled into the Capitol was Morris and the wooden walking stick she used to strike the unconscious Boyland in the head, face, and ribs, video showed.

Luke Coffee rinses out his eyes after being doused with pepper spray by police in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Coffee said even though he wore sunglasses, his eyes and the skin around them sustained especially painful burns.Photos by Blake McAlavy (1986-2022)

Bodycam video, CCTV, and video from media and bystanders showed that no police officers moved to aid Boyland that afternoon, even when bystanders begged and pleaded and said Boyland was dying. Officers pushed more people from the tunnel on top of Boyland, who was crushed under the pileup, bodycam video showed.

Sheriff’s deputy Ronald Colton McAbee repeatedly pointed at Boyland when he stepped in front of the police line just before Coffee arrived.

“Quit f**king trying to kill that girl!” McAbee shouted at officers, according to MPD bodycam video. “F**king stop!”

The same argument used on Coffee was made against McAbee: that he prevented police from helping Boyland. Video from police body cameras, Capitol Police CCTV, and bystanders showed, however, that McAbee repeatedly tried to get officers to help Boyland, who lay a few feet from police.

The DOJ contention only added to the pain McAbee still experiences over Boyland’s death.

“Her name will live on as long as there is breath in my lungs,” McAbee wrote to Boyland’s parents just after his trial. “There will be justice for her. I couldn’t bring her back, but I can make sure she is never forgotten.”

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