Md. man convicted of assaulting DC police officers during 2020 protest

A Frederick, Maryland, man has been convicted of assaulting two D.C. police officers during a demonstration in 2020.

Michael Patschak, 31, was found guilty last week of two counts of assaulting a police officer and one count of robbery, federal prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday.



The statement from the prosecutors said Patschak was at a demonstration on Dec. 12, 2020, at 16th and I streets in Northwest, when D.C. police began arresting “protesters assaulting officers and other demonstrators.”

Patschak shoved a police officer trying to arrest someone, the statement said, then tore off the officer’s body camera and put it in his pocket.

A few minutes later, he threw water at officers and punched an officer in the head who tried to arrest him, the prosecutors said.

He’ll be sentenced Jan. 20, 2023.

Rick Massimo

Rick Massimo came to WTOP, and to Washington, in 2013 after having lived in Providence, R.I., since he was a child. He's the author of "A Walking Tour of the Georgetown Set" and "I Got a Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival."

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