WASHINGTON — An Arkansas man will spend more than four years in prison for participating in one of the most savage attacks on police during the Capitol riot.
Peter Stager, 43, of Conway, Arkansas, pleaded guilty in February to one count of assaulting police with a dangerous weapon in exchange for prosecutors dropping other felony counts for obstructing law enforcement and the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced Stager to 52 months in prison, three years of supervised release and $2,000 in restitution. Contreras said he believed more prison time was necessary in addition to the two-and-a-half years Stager has already served in pretrial detention to ensure he wouldn’t get caught up in his emotions again and reoffend.
Stager was one of nine defendants indicted in connection with a violent assault on multiple officers who were attempting to defend the entrance to the Lower West Terrace Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021. One of those officers, a DC Police officer identified in court documents as “B.M.,” was grabbed and dragged down a set of stairs into the mob. While the officer was lying prone on the ground, rioters, including Stager, began beating him with objects.
“STAGER climbed the stairs while holding a flagpole with a United States flag affixed to it and used the pole to repeatedly strike B.M. while B.M. remained prone on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building,” investigators wrote in an affidavit filed in January 2021.
Credit: Department of Justice
Peter Stager (outlined in red), of Arkansas, attacks a downed DC Police officer at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Stager was identified in part thanks to a tip from a confidential source who’d seen him in videos at the Capitol. In one of the videos, Stager appeared to advocate for violence against members of Congress and police.
“Everybody in there is a treasonous traitor,” he said. “Death is the only remedy for what’s in that building.”
According to prosecutors, Stager added, “Every single one of those Capitol law enforcement officers, death is the remedy, that is the only remedy they get.”
Federal prosecutors argued Stager should serve 78 months, or six-and-a-half years, in prison for his “chilling motivation and the brutality of the assault.” They also asked he be ordered to pay a nearly $32,000 fine – the amount the government says he raised in a GiveSendGo campaign claiming he was a “political prisoner.”
Stager’s attorneys — David Benowitz, Rammy Barbari and Amy Collins — argued a time-served sentence for the approximately two-and-a-half years his client had already spent in pretrial detention would be sufficient.
“Mr. Stager comes before this Court humbled, contrite, and extraordinarily remorseful for his actions,” they wrote.
Defense attorneys said unlike other rioters who came to D.C. for explicitly political reasons, Stager was there because there was a scheduling conflict with his job as a truck driver. According to the defense Stager had made a spontaneous decision to go to the National Mall and wound up at the Capitol, where he claims to have witnessed the lifeless body of Roseanne Boyland. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined in April 2021 that Boyland had died of acute amphetamine intoxication. After that, his attorneys wrote, Stager “reached his breaking point” and unthinkingly heeded a command from someone in the crowd to pick up a flag – which he then used to assault the fallen officer.
“He is shaken, devastated, and in disbelief in light of his actions on January 6, 2021,” Stager’s attorneys wrote. “Indeed, later that very day, when his adrenaline subsided, Mr. Stager began to search within himself to try to understand how he could behave in such a manner and why this transpired. He even tried to coordinate with local police to turn himself in.”
In their sentencing memo, Stager’s attorneys argued a fine would be inappropriate. They said Stager’s wife had created the GiveSendGo page and the description of the case she wrote on it was the result of “a perspective muddled by misunderstanding that is no longer held.”
Before hearing his sentence Monday, Stager spoke briefly. He told Contreras he wanted to take responsibility for his actions and would accept whatever sentence the judge deemed appropriate. He also said he wished people could “quit being so divisive” and stop listening to false leaders.
“I will continue to back the blue,” he added.
Contreras said he intended to transfer supervision of Stager to the Eastern District of Arkansas upon his release due to the large number of Jan. 6 cases already straining the capabilities of the probation department in D.C.
Credit: Source link
