Jan. 6 rioter who 'blind-side tackled' Capitol officer is sentenced to more than 6 years in prison [View all]

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/jan-6-rioter-who-blind-side-tackled-capitol-officer-is-sentenced-to-more-than-6-years-in-prison/ar-BB1hv8Bj





WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump supporter who "blind-side tackled" a U.S. Capitol Police officer from behind on Jan. 6 and flipped him over a ledge was sentenced to more than six years in prison Tuesday.

Ralph Celentano, a New York man who thought Trump was the greatest president in American history, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly called Celentano's conduct "disgraceful" and that there was no excuse for it, calling the attack on the officer "a truly cowardly and despicable thing to do."

Celentano was arrested in 2022 and convicted at trial last year. Court evidence shows that he believed Trump's lies about the 2020 election, writing on social media that "crooked poll workers need to be hauled before judges" before heading to the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington on Jan. 6, and then heading to the Capitol.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/new-york-man-found-guilty-felony-and-misdemeanor-charges-related-capitol-breach

According to the government’s evidence, Celentano traveled from New York to Washington D.C. and attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021. After the rally, Celentano breached the restricted perimeter of the U.S. Capitol Building and made his way to the very front of the mass of rioters gathered at the Lower West Terrace. At the same time rioters had breached the Capitol Building and forced the recess of the U.S. House of Representatives, Celentano engaged in several physical altercations with law enforcement officers attempting to hold their police line on the West Front. Celentano locked arms with other rioters and pushed forward to breach the police line and then repeatedly shoved a separate law enforcement officer backward.

Evidence at trial showed that after successfully breaching the police line, Celentano observed a uniformed Capitol Police officer standing at the edge of a raised platform with his back turned. Celentano approached the officer from behind and rammed the officer in a “football-style tackle.” According to court documents, the officer was hit so hard that he flipped over the ledge and fell onto officers below him. The officer, an Iraq war veteran, recalled thinking, “I didn’t survive a war to go out like this.”

Over the course of the next few days, Celentano sent several text messages and posted on the social media network Parler about the riot on Jan. 6th. Among his messages, Celentano indicated he had fought the Capitol Police and won, taken over the Capitol, and stated that it was a day he would always remember, and that he would do it all over again.

Celentano was arrested on March 9, 2022, in Broad Channel, New York.