Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Pa. man gets 4 years for Trump flag attack
Court tells 72-year-old hits on officer inexcusable
PHILADELPHIA — A Montgomery County man who beat a Washington, D.C., police officer with a Trump flag during the Capitol riot was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison Friday — one of the harshest punishments imposed so far for a person accused in the Jan. 6 attack.
Howard Richardson, 72, of King of Prussia, apologized to the court during a sentencing hearing in Washington saying “there’s no excuse” for his behavior that day. Still, he stressed that the officer involved hadn’t been seriously hurt and pleaded with the court for mercy.
“I’m a good citizen,” he told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-kotelly during a hearing in Washington. “I’ve been a good neighbor. … I went down (to Washington) as a patriotic citizen to celebrate. I allowed myself to be dragged into this mob mentality.
He noted he is a Vietnam veteran and that his son has been a police officer for nearly two decades. But Kollar-kotelly said that, if anything, Richardson’s military service and his family ties to police should have made him even more keenly aware that his actions that day were indefensible.
“Violence is an unacceptable way of resolving political differences,” she said. “Your presence and actions in joining other insurrectionists was an inexcusable attack on our democracy. … You should appreciate what an extraordinary country you live in.”
The 46-month prison term Kollar-kotelly handed down Friday is the longest yet imposed against the 21 Pennsylvania defendants who have been sentenced so far for playing a role in the Capitol attack, which caused millions of dollars in damage, injured scores of officers and threatened the peaceful transition of power.
More than 70 people from the state have been charged to date, most with misdemeanors for illegally entering the Capitol building. Trials for those facing more serious charges such as assaulting police officers or planning the attack that day remain pending.
Unlike many of those charged, Richardson never entered the building. But prosecutors said Friday his attack on a Washington, D.C., police officer outside the building set his case apart and made him a candidate for a lengthy prison term.
Body camera footage from several officers showed Richardson — sporting a “Brigantine Beach” windbreaker and a red baseball cap — at the front of a mob that had burst through police barricades on the Capitol’s west plaza.
He approached a police officer in riot gear, yelled “Here it comes!” and bashed the officer three times with the metal flagpole he was carrying. He only stopped swinging after the flagpole broke in two.
Though Richardson pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting an officer earlier this year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily W. Allen noted that he has continued to try to minimize his actions.