Man will get 14-year sentence for Jan. 6 assault — longest sentence issued for riot
A Kentucky man was sentenced to 14 years in jail for attacking law enforcement officials with pepper spray when he stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — setting a brand new file for the longest sentence imposed in connection to the riot.
Peter Schwartz, a 49-year-old welder, was slapped with the prolonged sentence Friday after he was convicted of assault fees and different felony offenses in December.
US District Choose Amit Mehta, who handed down the sentence, blasted Schwartz as a “soldier towards democracy” who participated in “the form of mayhem, chaos that had by no means been seen within the nation’s historical past.”
“You aren’t a political prisoner,” the decide instructed him. “You’re not anyone who’s standing up towards injustice or combating towards an autocratic regime.”
Mehta beforehand dished the earlier longest sentence when he gave retired NYPD cop Thomas Webster a 10-year sentence for assaulting an officer with a steel flagpole on Jan. 6.
Schwartz pressured his manner by a line of law enforcement officials on the Capitol’s Decrease West Terrace with a gaggle of rioters and his ex-wife, Shelly Stallings. He threw a folding chair at one of many cops, prosecutors mentioned.
“By throwing that chair, Schwartz straight contributed to the autumn of the police line that enabled rioters to flood ahead and take over your entire terrace,” prosecutor Jocelyn Bond wrote in a court filing.
He was armed with a wood tire knocker and a police-issued “tremendous soaker” canister of pepper spray, which he sprayed on the retreating officers.
“Whereas the stream of liquid didn’t straight hit any officer, its impact was to intensify the hazard to the officers in that tunnel,” Bond wrote.
Earlier than leaving, Schwartz additionally joined a “heave ho” push towards police within the tunnel.
Stallings pleaded responsible final yr to riot-related fees and was sentenced final month to 2 years behind bars.
Schwartz was convicted of assault fees and different felony offenses in December.
Prosecutors had really useful a jail sentence of 24 years and 6 months for Schwartz.
Schwartz’s protection attorneys requested a sentence between 4 and 6 years, claiming their consumer was motivated by a “misunderstanding” concerning the 2020 election, fueled by Donald Trump’s repeated lies that the election was rigged towards him.
“There stay many grifters on the market who stay free to proceed propagating the ‘nice lie’ that Trump received the election, Donald Trump being among the many most distinguished. Mr. Schwartz shouldn’t be considered one of these people; he is aware of he was improper,” his defense lawyers wrote.
Schwartz bragged about storming the Capitol, and has claimed that his prosecution is politically motivated, prosecutors mentioned.
He referred to the riot because the “opening of a warfare” in a Fb publish a day after the riot.
“I used to be there and whether or not individuals will acknowledge it or not we at the moment are at warfare,” Schwartz wrote.
Schwartz has raised over $71,000 from a web based fundraising marketing campaign entitled “Patriot Pete Political Prisoner in DC.”
Prosecutors requested Mehta to order Schwartz to pay a nice equaling the quantity raised by his marketing campaign, arguing that he shouldn’t revenue from taking part within the riot.
On the time of the riot, Schwartz was on probation. He has a “jaw-dropping” 38 prior convictions since 1991, “a number of of which concerned assaulting or threatening officers or different authority figures,” Bond wrote.
Earlier than his sentencing, Schwartz briefly addressed the decide and instructed him that he “sincerely remorse[s] the harm that Jan. 6 has triggered to so many individuals and their lives.”
The decide mentioned he didn’t imagine Schwartz’s assertion.
“You took it upon your self to attempt to injure a number of law enforcement officials that day,” Mehta mentioned.
Greater than 100 law enforcement officials had been injured through the riot.
With Submit wires