A former NYPD officer gets the longest Jan. 6 sentence to date, 10 years.
By Ryan J. Reilly
Thomas Webster, a retired New York City officer, was convicted of several felonies for attacking a D.C. officer with a flag pole and tackling him to the ground on Jan. 6.
WASHINGTON — A retired New York City Police Department officer who was convicted of several felonies for attacking a D.C. cop with a flag pole on Jan. 6 and then tackling the officer to the ground and attempting to rip off his gas mask was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Thursday.
Thomas Webster was sentenced by Judge Amit P. Mehta to the longest sentence yet in a Jan. 6 case.
Webster, 56, was convicted by a jury in May after they determined he was lying on the stand when he tried to convince them he was trying to help the officer he assaulted to "see my hands" when he grabbed the officer's gas mask after he tackled him to the ground.
No one should be “gleeful” that Webster was facing 17.5 years in federal prison, Mehta said Thursday.
"What you did that day, it is hard to really put into words," Mehta told Webster. "I still remain shocked every single time I see [video of the attack]."
Mehta said Webster was "the first aggressor" in his confrontation with the D.C. police officer, and "all hell broke loose" on the police line when Webster showed up at that part of the police line.
"Nothing can explain or justify Mr. Webster's rage," Assistant U.S. Attorney Hava Arin Levenson Mirell told the judge. "Webster is one of the rioters who should have known better."
“No one knows better than a former cop how dangerous it was on Jan. 6,” the federal prosecutor said, saying that Webster's service made his behavior “particularly heinous.”
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/ex-nypd-cop-assaulted-dc-officer-jan-6-gets-record-setting-sentence-rcna45338?
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