A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction and 10-year prison sentence of a retired New York Police Department officer for assaulting a police officer during the January 6, 2021, siege at the U.S. Capitol. The three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the officer's claims of bias in the jury selection process.
The officer, a 20-year NYPD veteran, had argued that the jury pool in Washington, D.C., was prejudiced against him. However, the panel found no evidence to support this claim, stating that the jury pool had no preconceived notions about the defendant.
The defendant was convicted of all six counts in his indictment, including assaulting a Metropolitan Police Department officer with a flagpole. He had attended a rally near the White House on January 6, 2021, and later joined the mob that stormed the Capitol.
The court panel dismissed the defendant's argument that the jury pool in Washington was incapable of producing fair juries for Capitol riot defendants, emphasizing that political inclinations of a populace do not affect an individual's ability to serve impartially in a criminal case.
The defendant's 10-year prison sentence is one of the longest among Capitol riot cases, with only a few defendants receiving longer sentences. He was the first to be tried on an assault charge and present a self-defense argument in relation to the Capitol riot.
Over 850 individuals have been sentenced for Capitol riot convictions, with a small number receiving longer prison terms than the defendant. The court panel rejected the defendant's claim that his sentence was unreasonably long compared to other defendants in similar cases.
