Global Courant 2023-04-30 05:32:28
Federal authorities say a Southern California man who attacked police with pepper spray during the storming of the Capitol has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison
WASHINGTON — A Southern California man who attacked police with pepper spray during the storming of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, federal authorities announced.
Jeffrey Scott Brown, 56, of Santa Ana, has been given a 54-month prison sentence for misdemeanor and felony charges in connection with the mob attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump, the U.S. Justice Department said in a Friday press statement.
More than 1,000 individuals have been arrested, including more than 320 people charged with assaulting or obstructing law enforcement, the DOJ said. Trump supporters that day tried to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election results for Joe Biden, a Democrat, over Trump, a Republican.
Brown and two co-defendants were found guilty at trial in December.
Peter J. Schwartz of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, is expected to be sentenced in May. It was not clear why Markus Maly of Fincastle, Virginia, was not sentenced as scheduled on Friday.
Prosecutors had sought a 70-month prison sentence for Brown, who they say ducked to the front of a makeshift police line and used a stolen canister of pepper spray handed to him by Schwartz on officers.
Brown’s attorney, Samuel C. Moore, sought 40 months in prison, according to court documents.
Moore said the behavior took up “less than 10 minutes of Mr. Brown’s life” and that the alleged pepper spray “made no contact with any specific victim.” Still, Moore wrote, Brown admits he should never have been in the Capitol tunnel that day and takes responsibility for it.
