WASHINGTON — A Kentucky man with a protracted felony document was sentenced Friday to a record-setting 14 years in jail for attacking law enforcement officials with pepper spray and a chair as he stormed the U.S. Capitol together with his spouse.
Peter Schwartz’s jail sentence is the longest to this point amongst lots of of Capitol riot instances. The choose who sentenced Schwartz additionally handed down the earlier longest sentence – 10 years – to a retired New York Police Department officer who assaulted a police officer exterior the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors had beneficial a jail sentence of 24 years and 6 months for Schwartz, a welder.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Schwartz to 14 years and two months in jail, adopted by three years of supervised launch.
Mehta mentioned Schwartz was a “soldier against democracy” who participated in “the kind of mayhem, chaos that had never been seen in the country’s history.”
“You are not a political prisoner,” the choose advised him. “You’re not somebody who is standing up against injustice or fighting against an autocratic regime.”
Schwartz briefly addressed the choose earlier than studying his sentence, saying, “I do sincerely regret the damage that Jan. 6 has caused to so many people and their lives.”
The choose mentioned he didn’t imagine Schwartz’s assertion, noting his lack of regret.
“You took it upon yourself to try and injure multiple police officers that day,” Mehta mentioned.
Schwartz was armed with a wood tire knocker when he and his then-wife, Shelly Stallings, joined different rioters in overwhelming a line of law enforcement officials on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, the place he threw a folding chair at officers.
“By throwing that chair, Schwartz directly contributed to the fall of the police line that enabled rioters to flood forward and take over the entire terrace,” prosecutor Jocelyn Bond wrote in a court docket submitting.
Schwartz, 49, additionally armed himself with a police-issued “super soaker” canister of pepper spray and sprayed it at retreating officers. Advancing to a tunnel entrance, Schwartz coordinated with two different rioters, Markus Maly and Jeffrey Brown, to spray an orange liquid towards officers clashing with the mob.
“While the stream of liquid did not directly hit any officer, its effect was to heighten the danger to the officers in that tunnel,” Bond wrote.
Before leaving, Schwartz joined a “heave ho” push in opposition to police within the tunnel.
Stallings pleaded responsible final yr to riot-related prices and was sentenced final month to 2 years of incarceration.
Schwartz was tried with co-defendants Maly and Brown. In December, a jury convicted all three of assault prices and different felony offenses.
Mehta sentenced Brown final Friday to 4 years and 6 months in jail. Maly is scheduled to be sentenced June 9.
Schwartz’s attorneys requested a jail sentence of 4 years and 6 months. They mentioned his actions on Jan. 6 have been motivated by a “misunderstanding” concerning the 2020 presidential election. Then-President Donald Trump and his allies unfold baseless conspiracy theories that Democrats stole the election from the Republican incumbent.
“There remain many grifters out there who remain free to continue propagating the ‘great lie’ that Trump won the election, Donald Trump being among the most prominent. Mr. Schwartz is not one of these individuals; he knows he was wrong,” his protection legal professionals wrote.
Prosecutors mentioned Schwartz has bragged about his participation within the riot, proven no regret and claimed that his prosecution was politically motivated. He referred to the Capitol assault because the “opening of a war” in a Facebook put up a day after the riot.
“I was there and whether people will acknowledge it or not we are now at war,” Schwartz wrote.
Schwartz has raised over $71,000 from a web based marketing campaign entitled “Patriot Pete Political Prisoner in DC.” Prosecutors requested Mehta to order Schwartz to pay a superb equaling the quantity raised by his marketing campaign, arguing that he shouldn’t revenue from collaborating within the riot.
Schwartz was on probation when he joined the Jan. 6 riot. His felony document features a “jaw-dropping” 38 prior convictions since 1991, “several of which involved assaulting or threatening officers or other authority figures,” Bond wrote.
Schwartz was working as a welder in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, earlier than his arrest in February 2021, however he considers his residence to be in Owensboro, Kentucky, in response to his attorneys.
More than 100 law enforcement officials have been injured in the course of the riot. More than 1,000 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to Jan. 6. Nearly 500 of them have been sentenced, with over half getting phrases of imprisonment.
The 10-year jail sentence that Mehta handed down in September to retired NYPD officer Thomas Webster had remained the longest till Friday. Webster had used a steel flagpole to assault an officer after which tackled the identical officer because the mob superior towards the Capitol.
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