Public January 6 profile · ready to claim

Matthew James Melsen

Pardoned January 6 defendant

Documented editorial-use image

Matthew James Melsen is a 34-year-old man from Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and he was never convicted of anything. Read that again, because the headlines in Denver never led with it. FACT. Matthew Melsen pleaded not guilty to every charge. He did not take a plea. He did not admit anything. On January 23, 2025, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered that his case be dismissed without prejudice. There is no conviction. There is no verdict. There is no sentence. Court-record derived, per the NPR Jan. 6 Archive case record and Colorado Community Media. Wheat Ridge sits just west of Denver in Jefferson County, an old truck-farming town of about 32,000 that grew into a first-ring suburb. That is where the FBI came for him on February 28, 2024, three years and seven weeks after January 6, 2021. CHARGE ONLY. The government charged civil disorder, assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds. Allegations, all of them. The government never proved a single one to a judge or a jury, because the case was dismissed before trial. CHARGE ONLY, NEEDS AUTHENTICATION. The charging affidavit describes body-worn camera footage and alleges conduct at a bike-rack line and later in the Lower West Terrace tunnel. That is the prosecution's reading of video. It was never tested by cross-examination. This archive will not repeat it as fact and will not repeat an arrest photo. DOCUMENTED INFERENCE. Court records in the District of Columbia list a criminal case captioned United States v. Melsen, 1:24-cr-00394, filed August 28, 2024, and a preceding magistrate case 1:24-mj-00071 filed February 27, 2024. Those dates line up exactly with the arrest timeline in this record. We have not seen a native judgment, so both numbers are labeled documented inference, not fact. FACT. On January 20, 2025, President Trump granted clemency covering the January 6 prosecutions. Melsen's case was dismissed three days later. What the record shows: a Colorado man who said not guilty and never backed off it, and whose case ended with the government walking away. What the record does not show: his trade, his service, his family, his neighbors in Wheat Ridge. Matthew James Melsen has an entire life in Jefferson County that no reporter ever asked about. THE CASE RECORD United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Arrested February 28, 2024, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Pleaded not guilty to all charges. Case dismissed without prejudice January 23, 2025. Case numbers 1:24-cr-00394 and 1:24-mj-00071, documented inference. This profile is unclaimed. If this is you, or your family, claiming it is free, forever.