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A former New York City police officer and Marine Corps veteran who threw a flagpole at police before tackling an officer and removing his gas mask during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 , was sentenced to 10 years. years in prison on Thursday, the longest sentence handed down among the nearly 250 people convicted so far for their role in the insurgency.
Federal prosecutors sought a prison term of more than 17 years for Thomas Webster, 56, of Goshen, New York, who was the first riot defendant to face felony charges. assault on an officer to try his luck with a jury. Twelve others have pleaded guilty to a similar charge. But U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta said the government’s suggested sentence was disproportionate to what other rioters have received (the previous maximum sentence was a little more than seven years) and credited the 25 years Webster’s service with the Marines and the NYPD.
Webster took the stand at his trial and testified that he was acting in self-defense, saying that DC Police Officer Noah Rathbun had instigated the fight. But the video showed Webster yelling at police on the Capitol’s lower west plaza as officers struggled to maintain a perimeter outside the building. Rathbun then shoved Webster in the face — Rathbun testified that his hand slipped from Webster’s shoulder — before Webster turned and broke a Marine Corps flag pole on a bicycle rack and then addressed Rathbun. Webster removed the officer’s gas mask, causing Rathbun to begin choking on tear gas, the officer testified.
The jury took three hours to find Webster guilty in May of assault and four other felony charges.
Mehta said he had watched the video of the incident repeatedly, “and I’m still shocked every time I watch it. …You’re the first aggressor. … It was an intact police line. It’s not up to your actions, Mr. Webster , that all hell broke loose. It’s your actions that open the police line and let people through.”
The crowd then flowed into the Capitol and “you were part of it, and not a small part,” the judge said. “That context matters.”
Webster was allowed to surrender at a later date and left the court wearing what appeared to be a change of clothes, as if expecting to be arrested. He declined to comment on when he left.
In the government’s sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hava Mirell said Webster’s argument that “a 20-year NYPD veteran believed he had a right to retaliate with deadly force and against the vulnerable, non-violent Officer Rathbun is not only absurd, but dangerous.” It can cause others to follow suit and use violence against an officer because of a political grievance.”
Two officers fought in the January 6 Capitol riot. Who did wrong?
Webster, a married father of three, admitted to driving alone to Washington on Jan. 5, 2021, carrying his NYPD-issued handgun, which he did not bring to the Capitol. He wore a tactical vest and carried a Navy flag at the Capitol. Prosecutors said he served in the Marines from 1985 to 1989 and the NYPD from 1991 to 2011.
Federal sentencing guidelines set a sentencing range of 210 to 262 months or 17.5 to 21.8 years. Prosecutors recommended 17.5 years for Webster, the harshest sentence they have proposed against a Jan. 6 defendant. The government’s recommendation was still the low end of the range, although he argued that Webster was condemned for “leading the breach of the police line in the Lower West Plaza and for dishonoring a democracy it once fought honorably to protect and serve.”
The former NYPD officer was found guilty in the first trial for police assault on January 6
In his closing arguments at the trial, Webster’s attorney, James E. Monroe, criticized Rathbun for using inappropriate force and called him “a dishonest and unprofessional police officer.” But in his sentencing memo filed last week, Monroe took a different approach. He said Webster, who once served as a protégé to then-New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, “was one of the few people among the thousands of Americans present at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 who would have to have fully appreciated the enormity of the task. assigned to Officer Rathbun and his fellow officers.”
“Viewed in this light,” Monroe wrote, “Mr. Webster has no justifiable excuse for verbally abusing the officers present along the police line; pushing the bike rack; using his flagpole to threaten Officer Rathbun ; or by participating in the unspeakable act of charging and tackling Officer Rathbun to the ground.”
Monroe noted that the federal probation office recommended a sentence of 120 months or 10 years. He asked Mehta to impose a term of 127 days, the time he spent in federal custody before being released from pretrial detention.
Webster, sniffling and speaking slurred, told the judge: “I wish I had never gone to Washington, DC, I wish the events of that horrible day had never happened.”
At the end of his remarks, he turned to the audience and faced Rathbun.
“Most importantly, Agent Rathbun, I’m sorry,” Webster said. “I put myself on the same level as you, and that was wrong. I know how this affects you and your family, and I’m sorry.”
Rathbun was not seriously injured. He was present in court but declined to comment after the sentencing.
Mehta said he doubted Webster’s trial testimony.
“The idea that you could sit on the witness stand, as you’ve done before under oath, and tell jurors that the reason you put your hands on his mask was to show him you’re not going to hurt him, no it is. credible,” the judge said.
But Mehta said he was concerned that federal guidelines would add more than six years to the potential sentencing range for Webster because he had worn body armor during the riots, plus enhancements for using a dangerous weapon and assaulting a government official . And the judge noted that others convicted of assaulting the police had received terms ranging from six to 63 months. Mehta also credited Webster’s late acceptance of responsibility.
Of the 12 defendants who pleaded guilty to assaulting the police on January 6, the average sentence was 41.6 months. Of the four defendants in that group who admitted to more serious assault, for which Webster was convicted, the average sentence was 54 months. All 12 of those defendants received sentencing credit for “acceptance of responsibility,” which lowers the sentencing guidelines.
Webster was only the 34th defendant convicted and sentenced for any crime related to the Jan. 6 riot, a Washington Post database shows. The average sentence for the offense so far has been just under 33 months. Only one criminal defendant has not been sentenced to prison, Jacob Fracker. Fracker, also a police officer, was placed under house arrest for two months after testifying against his co-accused, partner Thomas Robertson. Robertson was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after a jury found him guilty of obstructing Congress and other charges.
There have now been eight jury trials, resulting in eight convictions. There have been 10 trials, with nine convictions. The acquittal came when a judge found that the police allowed the accused to enter the Capitol.
Robertson and Guy Reffitt, who were convicted at trial but not charged with assaulting the police, were both sentenced to 87 months in prison. This had been the longest sentence until Thursday.