Toms River Man Wearing Name On Jacket Charged In Capitol Riots

WASHINGTON, DC — A Toms River man who was wearing a jacket with his company logo on it has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Robert Coppotelli has been charged with four misdemeanor counts of unlawfully entering the Capitol with the goal of disrupting the session of Congress, WUSA9 reported. He was arrested Wednesday, the report said.

Coppotelli was identified after a tipster sent photos of him to federal authorities in July 2021, according to the complaint filed to support the arrest warrant.

According to the complaint, Coppotelli was wearing the jacket with the logo "Coppotelli" of Coppotelli Heavy Equipment Sales and Service in Toms River when he entered the Capitol from the west side of the building.

Video footage showed Coppotelli walk through the Senate Wing Door, which had been kicked in, and wandered around for about 12 minutes, including spending time in the room called the Crypt, "a large, circular room at the center of the Capitol’s first floor," and an adjacent room before heading back to the Senate Wing Door and crawling out a broken window, according to the complaint.

The logo on his jacket is easily identified in several photos in the complaint.

The identity of Coppotelli, who was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt and a black hat under the hood, along with a blue surgical mask and the jacket with the Coppotelli logo, was confirmed by someone who knows him, the complaint said.

The violent siege on the Capitol three years ago was an attempt to stop the certification of electoral votes declaring Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election. It resulted in the deaths of five people during or soon after the attack, including two Capitol police officers and one rioter. About 140 police officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department were assaulted in the attack, according to the Justice Department.

More than 1,300 people have been charged and about 900 have pleaded guilty or convicted in connection with the riots.

It was the first time in U.S. history that the transfer of power from one administration to another was not peaceful. In a speech before rioters attacked the Capitol, Trump repeated the same claims he had been making in the two months since the election that it had been stolen, then urged his supporters to walk from the rally site on the National Mall to the Capitol.