A former NYPD officer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday for attacking police with a metal flagpole during the January 6 riots.
Thomas Webster’s prison sentence is the longest so far among the 250 defendants who have been punished for their role during the attack on the US Capitol, the Associated Press reported.
Webster, a 20-year NYPD veteran, was the first Capitol riot defendant to face trial for assault and tried to present an argument of self-defence.
In May, a jury rejected Webster’s claim during his trial that he was defending himself when he tackled Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathbun and grabbed his gas mask outside the Capitol on January 6.
In sentencing the 56-year-old retired cop to 10 years prison plus three years of supervised release, US District Judge Amit Mehta said that along with Mr Rathbun, “the other victim was democracy”, according to the Associated Press.
More than 850 defendants have been criminally charged for taking part in the attack on the US Capitol, according to figures from the Justice Department.
The previous longest sentence was shared by two other rioters, who were sentenced separately to seven years and three months in prison.
Prosecutors accused Webster of “disgracing a democracy that he once fought honourably to protect and serve” in a pre-sentencing court filing.
They said Webster led the charge against barricades at the Capitol’s Lower West Plaza as they engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police, comparing the assault to a “medieval battle”.
“Each individual attack on an officer at the West Plaza weakened the defensive line, fuelled the crowd, and brought the rioters one step closer toward disrupting our democracy,” they wrote.
Defense attorney James Monroe said his client was “swept up in the fervour of the large crowd”, the Associated Press reported.
Mr Monroe said the mob was “guided by unscrupulous politicians” and others promoting the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.
Judge Mehta allowed Webster to report to prison at a date to be determined instead of immediately ordering him into custody.
