An Arkansas truck driver who beat a police officer with a flagpole hooked up to an American flag throughout the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced Monday to greater than 4 years in jail.
Peter Francis Stager struck the Metropolitan Police Department officer together with his flagpole not less than 3 times as different rioters pulled the officer, head first, into the group outdoors the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The bruised officer was amongst greater than 100 law enforcement officials injured throughout the riot.
Stager additionally stood over and screamed profanities at one other officer, who was significantly injured when a number of different rioters dragged him into the mob and beat him, in response to federal prosecutors.
After the beatings, Stager was captured on video saying, “Every single one of those Capitol law enforcement officers, death is the remedy. That is the only remedy they get.”
U.S. Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced Stager to 4 years and 4 months in jail, in response to a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s workplace.
Stager, 44, of Conway, Arkansas, pleaded responsible in February to a felony cost of assaulting police with a harmful weapon.
Prosecutors had really helpful a jail sentence of six years and 6 months.
Stager assaulted the officer throughout some of the violent episodes of Jan. 6 – a battle between rioters and police guarding an entrance to the Capitol constructing in a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace.
Stager’s actions on the Capitol “were the epitome of disrespect for the law,” prosecutors stated in a courtroom submitting.
“Stager joined a prolonged, multi-assailant attack on police officers, which resulted in injuries to the officers,” they wrote. “Stager himself wielded a flagpole and used it to strike at a vulnerable officer, who, lying face down in a mob of rioters had no means of defending himself.”
Stager’s truck driving job took him to Washington, D.C., on the day earlier than then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. Stager stayed in a single day to attend Trump’s rally after delivering a load of produce, a choice that he’ll remorse for the remainder of his life, his legal professionals stated in a courtroom submitting.
Stager’s attorneys say he tried to assist others within the crowd who had been injured after the riot erupted. Shocked by what he noticed, Stager had “reached his breaking point” and was “seeing red” when he picked up a flag on the bottom, they stated.
“Once the adrenaline wore off, Mr. Stager immediately called his wife to tell her he was horrified by his actions and that he was going to turn himself in upon returning to Arkansas,” his legal professionals wrote.
More than 1,000 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Over 620 of them have pleaded responsible. Approximately 100 others have been convicted by juries or judges after trials. Nearly 600 have been sentenced, with over half receiving phrases of imprisonment starting from three days to 18 years.
Stager was indicted with eight different defendants on expenses associated to the tunnel battle. Four of his co-defendants even have pleaded responsible to assault expenses.
Florida resident Mason Courson was sentenced in June to 4 years and 9 months in jail. Michigan resident Justin Jersey was sentenced in February to 4 years and three months in jail. Michigan development employee Logan Barnhart was sentenced in April to 3 years in jail. Georgia enterprise proprietor Jack Wade Whitton is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 16.
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