Washington
Man gets jail for joining Capitol riot after Tinder date
A Delaware business owner has been sentenced to 30 days of incarceration for storming the U.S. Capitol after seeing the riot erupt on a Tinder date’s television and taking an Uber ride to join the mob’s attack, court records show.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan also on Friday ordered Jeffrey Schaefer to pay a $2,000 fine and $500 in restitution for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington.
On the eve of then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, Schaefer drove from Delaware to northern Virginia to spend the night at the home of a woman whom he had met on the Tinder online dating app. The next day, he decided to take an Uber ride to the Capitol after seeing the riot unfold on TV at his date’s home in Alexandria.
“He had the Uber driver drop him off near the west front of the Capitol and he approached the Capitol from that drop off point,” Justice Department prosecutor Anita Eve wrote in a court filing.
Schaefer entered the Capitol though a broken window near the Senate Wing doors, joined other rioters in chanting and spent approximately 28 minutes inside the building before leaving through a door, prosecutors said. He posted several images of the riot on Facebook, including one showing a pile of destroyed media equipment.
Schaefer, 36, of Milton, Delaware, was arrested in January 2022, He pleaded guilty in August to one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum sentence of six months behind bars.
Defense attorney Joshua Insley noted that Schaefer wasn’t accused of engaging in any violence or destructive conduct on Jan. 6, when Congress had convened a joint session to certify the results of President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Schaefer owns a charter transportation company based in Milton. Once a “committed supporter” of Trump, Schaefer now believes he was “manipulated and used by those who hold power and will never face any consequences,” his lawyer said.
“While Mr. Schaefer accepts responsibility for his actions, he was guided and urged every step of the way by no less of an authority than the President of the United States and a majority of Republican Senators and Congressman that continued to repeat the ‘Big Lie’ that the election had been stolen by the Democrats,” Insley wrote.
More than 900 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 460 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor offenses. Over 320 of them have been sentenced, with roughly half of them receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 10 years.
Illinois
Coder sentenced to 7 1/2 years for terrorism charge
CHICAGO (AP) — A former Chicago college student was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in federal prison for attempting to help the Islamic State group.
Thomas Osadzinski, 23, designed, used, and taught a computer program to disseminate violent propaganda online, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He was convicted last year of attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.
The sentence handed down Thursday was less than the 15 years prosecutors had sought.
The former DePaul computer science student has been in custody since being arrested in Chicago in 2019 during an FBI sting.
Defense attorneys painted Osadzinski, who was born and raised in the Chicago suburb Northbrook, as a naive student who “got sucked in” to radical ideologies, the Chicago Tribune reported.
His attorney, Joshua Herman, told AP: “This sentence will allow Tommy to have a life, which is all he and his family asked for.” Herman added that the defense plans to appeal based on First Amendment issues.
Before Osadzinski was sentenced, he apologized to his parents in the courtroom and told the judge, “I completely reject ISIS.”
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who ordered that the prison term be followed by 10 years of court-supervised release, said there was a wide gulf between poor judgment and Osadzinski’s conduct, which included pledging fealty to a “hideous group” such as the Islamic State and “promoting and encouraging” its violent message around the globe.
“I think you understand now how serious this is,” Gettleman told Osadzinski. “You have shown remorse. Is it genuine? I hope so.”
The FBI said in a criminal complaint that Osadzinski boasted that he would use a gun and explosives to elude authorities if need be.
New York
Lawyer gets 15 months behind bars for firebombing police car
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City attorney was sentenced to 15 months behind bars on Friday for firebombing an empty New York City police vehicle with another lawyer during protests over the murder of George Floyd.
Before hearing her sentence, Urooj Rahman asked a judge to spare her prison time and give her a “second chance” to redeem herself for what she called a momentary lapse of judgement.
“I’m so incredibly sorry for my reckless and wrong actions,” a tearful Rahman said in federal court in Brooklyn. “I don’t think there’s enough words to express my sorrow and regret. ... I completely lost my way in the emotion of the night.”
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan praised her for choosing a career in public interest law to fight against social injustices.
“You’re a remarkable person who did a terrible thing on one night,” Cogan said.
However, Cogan also scolded her for thinking she could get away with violent protest.
“It displays an amazing amount of arrogance. … It’s just a very arrogant way to think,” he said.
Federal prosecutors had recommended a sentence of 18 to 24 months as part of a plea deal.
Rahman and Colinford Mattis were arrested amid clashes between protesters and police on May 30, 2020, during an eruption of demonstrations following Floyd’s killing by a police officer in Minnesota.
Surveillance cameras recorded Rahman hurling an incendiary device into a parked police vehicle, setting fire to its console. No one was injured in the attack, but the vehicle was severely damaged.
Officers arrested the lawyers a short time later and said they found a lighter, a Bud Light beer bottle filled with toilet paper and a gasoline tank in the back of a minivan driven by Mattis, a corporate attorney. Prosecutors alleged the lawyers planned to distribute and throw other Molotov cocktails.
While other lawyers condemned their conduct, some objected to the severity of the charges, arguing that the case was improperly handled as if it were an act of domestic terrorism. When the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn asked that the lawyers be detained without bail, 56 former federal prosecutors sent a legal brief to the court criticizing the government’s handling of the case.
Rahman and Mattis have been disbarred. Mattis is scheduled for sentencing next month.
New Hampshire
Stepmother of missing girl pleads guilty to perjury
The stepmother of a New Hampshire girl who disappeared in 2019 at age 5 and is presumed dead was sent to prison for at least a year and a half Friday after pleading guilty to perjury charges.
Kayla Montgomery, 32, pleaded guilty to two charges alleging that she lied to a grand jury about working at a doughnut shop on Nov. 30, 2019, the day she said she last saw Harmony Montgomery. She also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors who have charged her estranged husband with second-degree murder in the child’s death.
In exchange, prosecutors dropped charges that Montgomery lied to state health officials about having the child in her care in order to collect welfare benefits and that she received stolen firearms.
She did not speak at her hearing in Hillsborough County Superior Court other than to indicate that she understood the details of the plea agreement. She was sentenced to 3½ to seven years in prison, with 1½ years of the minimum suspended and given credit for time already served.
Authorities didn’t know Harmony was missing until last November. In August, police announced that they believed she was killed in Manchester in early December 2019. Adam Montgomery was arrested in October and has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, falsifying physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Indiana
Man gets 100 years in fatal beating of stepson, 4
GOSHEN, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana man has been sentenced to 100 years in prison for beating his 4-year-old stepson to death.
An Elkhart County judge sentenced Christian Maradiaga, 20, of Elkhart on Thursday in Romeo Pineda Duran’s June 2021 death. A jury had convicted Maradiaga in September of murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, and interference with the reporting of a crime.
Maradiaga claimed his stepson fell in the shower and hit his head before later dying of his injuries at a hospital. But medical examiners and witnesses testified during his trial that the evidence showed the boy was beaten so severely he became brain-dead, The Goshen News reported.
Prosecutors said Maradiaga’s biological son was also present when Romeo was fatally beaten.
Romeo’s aunt, Jennifer Duran Hernandez, testified during Thursday’s sentencing, saying that “the day we got to say goodbye to my nephew was the hardest day of my life.”
Illinois
Man with young teen when he was shot by police is acquitted
CHICAGO (AP) — A man accused of shooting at a car while standing alongside 13-year-old Adam Toledo moments before the teen was fatally shot last year by a Chicago police officer was found not guilty of weapons charges Friday by a Cook County judge.
Ruben Roman, 23, stood trial this week on charges that were not directly related to the death of Toledo, whose killing spurred protests and calls for reform to the Chicago Police Department’s foot pursuit policies.
The charges, three felony counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and one felony count of recklessly discharging a firearm, instead stemmed from Roman’s alleged actions while with Toledo just before the shooting.
Prosecutors said that Roman fired the rounds that drew the officer’s attention, and that gloves he dropped tested positive for gunshot residue, the Chicago Tribune reported.
But Roman’s defense attorneys argued that no witnesses or forensic evidence definitively tie Roman to the weapon, and that Toledo could have been the person to fire the gun, creating reasonable doubt.
Police body camera footage shows Officer Eric Stillman shoot Adam less than a second after the teen dropped a gun, turned toward the officer and began raising his hands. Stillman chased him down a dark alley after responding to a report of gunshots.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said there was insufficient evidence to charge the officer in the teenager’s death.
After the deaths of Adam and 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez, Chicago police changed their foot pursuit policy so officers can no longer chase people on foot simply because they run away or have committed minor offenses.
