H.B. man arrested for joining in Jan. 6 Capitol attack sentenced Tuesday in federal court
A Huntington Beach man arrested in a Jan. 28 FBI raid, after social media posts placed him at the U.S. Capitol insurrection, was sentenced in federal court Tuesday and ordered to pay restitution, records indicate.
Mark Steven Simon — who faced felony charges of unlawful entry into a restricted building with the intent to disrupt government business and engaging in unlawful activities on Capitol grounds — was sentenced to 35 days incarceration and must pay $500 in restitution.
The ruling by Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed three of four charges, leaving Simon to answer only to one count of demonstrating or picketing in a capitol building. A court minute order states Simon must begin serving out his sentence no later than Jan. 3, 2022.
A Jan. 21 affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court stated authorities obtained information about Simon’s presence at the Capitol from a post on local website, the Orange Juice Blog. The post identified a woman in a photo with Simon as a known Huntington Beach activist working to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election.
The blog post also contained a video FBI agents believe Simon himself recorded from the east side of the Capitol building as he and others approached an entryway door. The video depicts numerous people pushing their way inside the building as others exit.
The FBI on Thursday arrested Huntington Beach man Mark Simon on federal charges related to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
“Law enforcement officers inside the U.S. Capitol could be seen attempting to remove individuals from the building,” an FBI special agent testified in the affidavit. “Once the individual taking the video was in the doorway threshold of the U.S. Capitol building, he turned the camera on himself and said, ‘In the Capitol baby, yeah!’”
The man depicted on the video, whom agents believe to be Simon, shouts “2021 Donald Trump!” FBI agents conducted a biometric search to match Simon’s driver’s license photo with the photos and images from the video.
The Los Angeles Times reported at the time of Simon’s arrest he’d been featured in a story in right-leaning newspaper Epoch Times following the Capitol breach, in which he was quoted saying he attended the rally in support of President Trump and to ensure a free and fair election.
“The worst I saw there was a couple patriots on top of some type of government vehicle — on the roof. That was about it,” Simon told the Epoch Times.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
