Former NYPD officer gets longest January 6 riot sentence yet
Thomas Webster sentenced to 10 years in prison for assaulting an officer during January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.
Published On 1 Sep 20221 Sep 2022
A retired New York Police Department (NYPD) officer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for assaulting an officer with a flagpole during last year’s attack on the United States Capitol, the longest sentence handed out so far in relation to the January 6 riot.
Thomas Webster, a 20-year veteran of the NYPD, was sentenced on Thursday after being found guilty in May of assaulting a Washington, DC police officer during the riot.
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US District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced the 56-year-old to 10 years in prison plus three years of supervised release, but allowed Webster to report to prison at a date to be determined instead of immediately ordering him into custody.
“Mr Webster, I don’t think you’re a bad person,” the judge said on Thursday. “I think you were caught up in a moment. But as you know, even getting caught up in a moment has consequences.”
About 250 people have been punished for participating in the riot at the Capitol, which saw a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters storm the building in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
In a court filing, prosecutors accused Webster of “disgracing a democracy”.
“Each individual attack on an officer at the West Plaza weakened the defensive line, fueled the crowd, and brought the rioters one step closer toward disrupting our democracy,” they wrote.
Webster was the first Capitol riot defendant to be tried on assault charges and argued that he had acted in self-defence against a “rogue cop” who had instigated the fight.
A jury rejected that claim and found that Webster had tackled Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathbun and grabbed his gas mask outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Body camera footage showed Webster yelling at Rathbun and then slamming a bike rack at him.
In May, jurors convicted Webster of all six counts in his indictment, including a charge that he assaulted Rathbun with a dangerous weapon, the flagpole.
