Record at a Glance
- Category
- Jan 6th
- Age in NPR record
- 54
- Location
- Jonestown, Pennsylvania
- Charges
- Civil Disorder; Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers; Obstruction of an Official Proceeding; Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds; Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds; Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building or Grounds; Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building
- Case status
- Pleaded not guilty; Dismissed in part or full
Case Summary
A day after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, according to court documents, Joseph Fischer had an exchange with another Facebook user: “Well, I may need a job. … Word got out that I was at the rally… lol.” Fischer was worried because he was a patrolman at the North Cornwall Township Police Department in Pennsylvania before he allegedly breached the Capitol with the hordes after the Trump rally. Fischer caught it all in a three-minute video that appears to show him entering the Capitol and, among other things, yelling, “Charge.” A Washington Metropolitan Police officer inside the Capitol building apparently recorded the scene on his body camera. According to court documents, the video shows a scuffle, and at least one police officer can be seen on the ground. Someone on the video is shouting, “let him up … let him up,” and then the individual says, “I am a cop. I am a cop, too.” Officials believe that individual was Fischer. Fischer wrote in a Facebook exchange a short time later that the police chief at work had had a word with him. “I told him if that is the price I have to pay to voice my freedom and liberties which I was born with and thusly taken away then then [sic] there must be the price. I told him I have no regrets. … Sometimes doing the right thing no matter how small is more important than ones own security.” The North Cornwall Police Department issued a statement saying Fischer had been suspended without pay.
Case History
Fischer pleaded Not Guilty to all charges. On 1/21/2025, the court grants the government’s motion to dismiss the case with prejudice
Sources
- Primary Documentation
NPR Jan. 6 Defendant DatabaseNPR - Primary Documentation
Underlying court recordCourt record linked by NPR
Case summary, charges, procedural updates and image are drawn from the NPR Jan. 6 archive snapshot dated 2026-09-25 unless otherwise indicated.