Ex-NYPD cop who assaulted D.C. officer gets 10-year sentence, On Thursday, a former NYPD officer was given a 10-year jail sentence for his role in an attack on a DC police officer on January 6 in which he brandished a flagpole, tackled the officer to the ground, and attempted to remove the officer’s gas mask.
The longest sentence handed down by a judge in a case this year was handed out to Thomas Webster on January 6 by Judge Amit P. Mehta.
In May, a jury found 56-year-old Webster guilty of assaulting a police officer by grabbing his gas mask after tackling him to the ground. Webster claimed he was trying to let the officer “see my hands” when he assaulted him, but the jury saw through his testimony and found him guilty.
On Thursday, Mehta stated that no one should be “gleeful” about Webster’s potential 17.5 years in federal prison.
What you did that day is difficult to describe in words,” Mehta told Webster. Seeing footage of the incident still leaves me reeling in disbelief.
According to Mehta, when Webster arrived at that section of the police line, “all hell broke out.” This was because Webster was “the initial aggressor” in his interaction with the D.C. police officer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hava Arin Levenson Mirell told the judge, “Nothing can explain or excuse Mr. Webster’s wrath.” Webster is one of the looters who should have known better, yet made the mistake of joining the melee.
The federal prosecutor stated, “No one knows better than a former cop how dangerous it was on January 6.” This, she added, made Webster’s actions “especially terrible.”
Mirell claimed that even if the man didn’t know better than “to believe Trump’s falsehood,” he still would have known better than to assault police officers.
“As a former police officer, he feels entitled to do what he wants,” Mirell said of the man. On January 6th, Webster, she alleged, became “old-school” and “rogue,” “instigated violence,” and was obviously anticipating a violent conflict.
The government claimed, and the jury agreed, that Webster was obviously lying when he said the officer he attacked started the fight. As the prosecutor put it, the officer Webster assaulted would have been “absolutely mad” to challenge Webster to a fight.
Mehta stated that the reasons presented by Webster and his team “could not be more at contrast with his testimony.”
Mehta added, “I take no pleasure in doing this,” as he handed down the punishment, claiming that Webster had “created an alternative fact” during his testimony.
The video is accurate, as Mehta pointed out. “It wasn’t difficult to see through, and the jury did, as did I. Also, I’m sorry you had the audacity to stand up there and imply differently.”
Webster’s attorneys had asked for a reduced term, saying in a filing earlier this week that their client had a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of his work as a police officer, and that this had contributed to his behavior on January 6.
Another ex-officer, Thomas Robertson, was given a federal jail term of nearly seven years last month, joining Texas extremist Guy Reffitt.
