Ellwood City man whose wife pleaded guilty to involvement in Capitol riot now faces charges

An Ellwood City man whose wife pleaded guilty to being involved in last year’s U.S. Capitol riot has been charged with related counts.

Brian Douglas Sizer, 47, surrendered to the FBI on Thursday morning. He was released on $10,000 unsecured bond after an initial court appearance Friday on charges of entering a restricted building and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building and on Capitol grounds.

His defense attorney, Joe Otte, declined to comment.

Sizer’s wife, Julia Sizer, pleaded guilty Nov. 4, 2021, to a single misdemeanor count of parading or demonstrating in a Capitol building. She was ordered to spend one year on probation and pay a $2,000 fine.

Julia Sizer told federal agents interviewing her in March 2021 that she attended the riot with her husband, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.

The complaint against Brian Sizer said agents found images of the couple at the Capitol on her cellphone.

Brian Sizer could be seen in some of the photos and again in closed circuit television footage from inside the Capitol wearing a tan jacket, gray hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap, the complaint said.

The complaint said Julia Sizer entered the building alone at 2:48 p.m. through the Parliamentarian Door on the west side of the building. Video showed that she went about 15 feet down the hallway, got stuck in a crowd, turned around and exited two minutes later.

A warrant that tracked cellphone locations and a facial recognition search both showed that Brian Sizer was not in the building at that time, the complaint said.

Closed circuit television footage showed that Julia Sizer entered the Capitol again about four minutes after she had left and was accompanied by her husband, the complaint said.

The two remained in the building for six minutes. During that time, the complaint said, they entered an office and remained there for a minute.

Brian Sizer exited the office first and was moving with a large crowd into the hallway when someone deployed a chemical irritant that caused the crowd to cough and cover their faces, the complaint said.

Brian Sizer exited the office at 3 p.m. and Julia Sizer did a minute later, using her knit Trump hat to cover her mouth and nose, the complaint said.

A former neighbor of the couple identified both of them from photographs, the complaint said.

As of Oct. 6, more than 880 people from all 50 states have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.

Of those charged, 272 are accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., said 140 police officers from both the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department were assaulted that day.

Of those already charged, 412 have pleaded guilty and 21 went to trial and were found guilty. Of the 280 defendants who already been sentenced, 152 received a period of incarceration.