A California man who drove a stun gun into the police officer Michael Fanone’s neck during one of the most violent clashes of the January 6 riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison.
Daniel “DJ” Rodriguez yelled, “Trump won!” as he was led out of the courtroom where the US district judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 12 years and seven months behind bars for his role in the attack on Congress.
Only two other January 6 defendants have received longer prison terms after hundreds of sentencings for Capitol riot cases.
The judge said Rodriguez, 40, was “a one-man army of hate, attacking police and destroying property” at the Capitol.
“You showed up in DC spoiling for a fight,” Jackson said. “You can’t blame what you did once you got there on anyone but yourself.”
A body camera worn by Fanone captured the Metropolitan police officer screaming after Rodriguez shocked him with a stun gun while he was surrounded by a mob.
Another rioter had dragged Fanone into the crowd outside a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol, where police were guarding an entrance. Other rioters began beating Fanone, who lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack after Rodriguez pressed the stun gun against his neck and repeatedly shocked him.
Fanone addressed the judge before she imposed the sentence. The former officer described how the January 6 attack prematurely ended his law enforcement career and turned him into a target for Trump supporters who cling to the lie that Democrats stole the 2020 election.
Fanone left the courtroom in the middle of Rodriguez’s statement to the judge. He did not miss an apology from Rodriguez, who has been jailed for more than two years and will get credit for time served.
“I’m hopeful that Michael Fanone will be OK some day,” Rodriguez said. “It sounds like he’s in a great deal of pain.”
Fanone said he left the courtroom because he didn’t care to hear his assailant’s “rambling, incoherent” statement.
“Nothing he could have said to me today would have made any difference whatsoever,” he said.
Prosecutors recommended a 14-year prison sentence for Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty in February to charges including assaulting Fanone. They also sought a fine of nearly $100,000 to offset the cost of Fanone’s medical bills and medical leave.
Fanone has written a book and testified in front of a House committee that investigated the insurrection, which disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Joe Biden’s victory.
“Rodriguez’s criminal conduct on January 6 was the epitome of disrespect for the law; he battled with law enforcement at the US Capitol for hours, nearly costing one officer his life, in order to stop the official proceeding happening inside,” prosecutors wrote.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty to four felony charges including conspiracy and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He entered the guilty plea about two weeks before his trial was scheduled to start.
On January 6, Rodriguez attended Donald Trump’s “Save America” rally before joining rioters who attacked police.
“Rodriguez made his way to the front of the line of rioters battling the officers, yelling into his bullhorn at the beleaguered line,” prosecutors wrote.
Rodriguez deployed a fire extinguisher and shoved a wooden pole at police before another rioter, Kyle Young, handed him what appeared to be a stun gun.
Fanone was at the front of the police line when another rioter, Albuquerque Cosper Head, wrapped his arm around the officer’s neck and dragged him on to the terrace steps, then restrained Fanone while other rioters attacked him. Rodriguez shocked Fanone below the left ear of his helmet.
Fanone managed to retreat and collapsed before he was taken to a hospital.
Rodriguez entered the building and smashed a window with a pole before leaving Capitol grounds.
Head was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to an assault charge.
Young also was sentenced to more than seven years. Young grabbed Fanone by the wrist while others yelled, “Kill him!” and “Get his gun!”
During an interview with FBI agents after his March 2021 arrest, Rodriguez said he had believed he was doing the “right thing” and that he had been prepared to die to “save the country”. He cried as he spoke to the agents, saying he was “stupid” and ashamed of his actions.
In the days leading up to January 6, Rodriguez spewed violent rhetoric in a Telegram group chat called “PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang”.
“There will be blood. Welcome to the revolution,” Rodriguez wrote a day before the riot.
Rodriguez’s attorneys said he idolized Trump, seeing the the former president “as the father he wished he had”, as they sought a prison sentence of five years and five months.
The same judge who sentenced Rodriguez convicted a co-defendant, Edward Badalian, of three riot-related charges and acquitted him of a fourth after a trial without a jury. Jackson is scheduled to sentence Badalian on 21 July.
More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 riot. More than 700 have pleaded guilty or been convicted. Approximately 550 have been sentenced, more than half receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 18 years.
Source: Elections - theguardian.com
