Appeals court upholds retired NYPD officer's 10-year prison sentence for Capitol riot attack

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a retired New York Police Department officer's conviction and 10-year prison sentence for assaulting a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol. UNITED STATES.

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Thomas Webster's claims that he was convicted by a biased jury.

Webster, a 20-year veteran of the New York Police Department, argued that the entire Washington, D.C., jury had “alleged bias” against him. But the panel found no evidence that jurors had preconceived notions about Webster, “or even knew who he was.”

Jurors rejected Webster's claim that he was defending himself when he tackled Metropolitan Police Officer Noah Rathbun and grabbed his gas mask. They found Webster guilty of all six counts in his indictment, including that he assaulted Rathbun with a dangerous weapon, a flagpole.

Webster traveled to Washington from his home near Goshen, New York, to attend then-President Donald Trump's “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on January 6. Webster wore a bulletproof vest and carried a Marine Corps flag on a metal. pole when he joined the mob that stormed the Capitol.

Trump named two of the three judges who ruled on Webster's appeal.

The appeals court panel said Webster failed to demonstrate that the jury pool in Washington was “structurally incapable” of producing fair juries for Capitol riot defendants.

“Webster asserts that the district voted overwhelmingly for President (Joe) Biden and historically votes for Democratic candidates,” the ruling states. “That may be true. But the political leanings of a population as a whole say nothing about an individual's ability to impartially judge his or her criminal conduct.

Webster's 10-year prison sentence is one of the longest among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. He was the first defendant on January 6 to be tried for assault and the first to present an argument of self-defense.

More than 850 people have been sentenced for being found guilty of the Capitol riots. Only 10 of them received prison sentences longer than Webster, according to an Associated Press review of court records.

The panel rejected his argument that the length of his sentence was “fundamentally unreasonable” compared to other Capitol riot defendants.