Sharon man to plead guilty to Capitol riot charges
A Mercer County man said he will plead guilty next month to participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Matthew Perna, 37, of Sharon, is scheduled to plead guilty on Dec. 17 to the four-count indictment returned against him.
He appeared before U.S. District Judge John Bates on Friday morning.
Perna’s attorney, Gerald Ingram, told the court that his client will plead without an agreement with the government.
“Mr. Perna is anxious to get this behind him one way or the other,” Ingram said.
Perna and prosecutors will submit an agreed-upon written summary of the facts to which Perna will plead guilty.
The federal government said Perna was seen inside the Capitol wearing a red, “Make America Great Again” hooded sweatshirt. He posted a video to his Facebook page, in which he said, “Steve and I, we walked right into the Capitol building.”
Perna told investigators that he attended the Trump rally that day and then saw a door on the Capitol building’s west side open.
He claimed that a crowd gathered behind him pushed him into the building and that he was only inside for five to 10 minutes.
He was released on bond pending trial and has remained in compliance with his release, the judge said.
Perna is charged with entering a restricted building, obstructing an official proceeding and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2020 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of "Death by Cyanide." She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.
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