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Logan Barnhart, a Michigan pipelayer and bodybuilder, was sentenced Friday to 3 years in prison.
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Internet sleuths used facial recognition to discover his modeling work on the covers of romance novels.
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A reader review of one of the novels said the book made her “hot and troublesome.”
A Michigan pipelayer who modeled shirtless for the covers of several romance novels, including one in which a woman lusts after her Navy SEAL stepbrother, was sentenced to three years in prison on Thursday for assaulting law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6 riot.
Logan James Barnhart, 41, became a man of interest to federal authorities after he was photographed dragging a police officer down a flight of stairs at the Capitol.
In a press release announcing his verdict, the Justice Department wrote that Barnhart “grabbed the neck of the officer’s ballistic vest” and then dragged the officer “down the stairs in a prone position and into the crowd, where other rioters beat the officer with weapons, including a flagpole and a baton.” The officer suffered bruises and abrasions, the DOJ said.
A few minutes later, Barnhart then attacked a line of officers with the foot of a flagpole.
Internet sleuths helped identify Barnhart months before his August 2021 arrest, HuffPost first reported.
An online community called Sedition Hunters used facial recognition technology to find images of Barnhart. During their search, the group discovered photos of him on bodybuilding websites and of his stint modeling for the cover of several adult romance novels.
One of the books is titled “Stepbrother UnSEALed: A Bad Boy Military Romance” written by Nicole Snow.
According to Amazon’s synopsis, the book centers on a woman, Delia, who develops a “reckless seduction” for her stepbrother, Chris Cleveland.
“I almost ended up in my stepbrother’s bed and I want it to happen again,” the description read. Chris Cleveland tempts me because he’s wrong. Swoon-worthy, all-American Navy SEAL. Bad boy. Manwhore.’
Snow did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The book has four stars on Amazon. A top review from a verified purchaser of the book wrote that the novel “excited and bothered” her. Another praised Snow for turning the “taboo subject of step-siblings” into a “hot story.”
Barnhart pleaded guilty to assaulting officers with a gun in September. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison and released under supervision for 3 years. Barnhart will also have to pay a $3,688 fine and a $2,000 refund.
During a trial, Barnhart told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras that he did not recognize himself in the footage showing him assaulting an officer, the Associated Press reported.
“The way I behaved seems so strange to me,” Barnhart said.
Read the original article on Business Insider
