Jan. 6 Rioter Gets 14 Years for Police Attacks, Longest Sentence Yet in Inquiry
A Pennsylvania welder who attacked police officers at the Capitol with a chair and then chemical spray was sentenced on Friday to slightly more than 14 years in prison, the most severe penalty handed down so far in connection with the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
At a hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, the man, Peter Schwartz, 49, joined a growing list of people charged with assaulting the police on that day who have received stiff sentences. Until now, the longest sentence in a Jan. 6 case had been the 10-year term given to Thomas Webster, a former New York City police officer who was found guilty last year of swinging a metal flagpole at an officer at the Capitol.
Prosecutors had asked Judge Amit P. Mehta to sentence Mr. Schwartz, who went to the riot armed with a wooden tire knocker, to 24 years and six months in prison — more than twice Mr. Webster’s sentence. While Judge Mehta declined to go that high, he said that his decision to issue a term of 170 months was necessary given Mr. Schwartz’s substantial history of violent offenses, and lack of remorse for his actions.
“There are not many who have come before this court with a criminal history like yours,” Judge Mehta said.
Source: The New York Times
