A 49-year-old Pennsylvania man was sentenced to over a decade in prison after he was convicted of assaulting police officers at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

Peter Schwartz was sentenced to 14 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta over his actions, which included pepper spraying and throwing a folding chair at a group of officers at the Capitol. The sentence is the longest so far for any of the January 6-related convictions. 

Prosecutors had asked that Schwartz, a welder with previous convictions for violence and threats of violence, be locked up for 24 years, a sentence Schwartz’s lawyers vigorously opposed. Defense lawyer Dennis Boyle said that a 24-year sentence “would give credence to all those who consider this a political prosecution.”

Schwartz was arrested while working as a welder in Pennsylvania, but has said that Kentucky is his home.

Mehta decided to give him 14 years, saying that his 38 prior convictions did play a role in the decision. He said that Schwartz was a “soldier against democracy,” claiming that he pushed forward “the kind of mayhem, chaos that had never been seen in the country’s history.”

“You are not a political prisoner,” said Mehta, an Indian-born judge who was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2014 by Barack Obama. “You’re not somebody who is standing up against injustice or fighting against an autocratic regime.”

In a court filing, Schwartz’s lawyer’s referred to Donald Trump as a “grifter” and said that Schwartz no longer believed that the 2020 election was stolen. 

“There remain many grifters out there who remain free to continue propagating the ‘great lie’ that Trump won the election, Donald Trump being the most prominent. Mr. Schwartz is not one of these individuals; he knows he was wrong,” the lawyers said. 

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Schwartz told Mehta that he was sorry about the damage that had been caused on January 6, but the judge said he didn’t believe him. “You took it upon yourself to try and injure multiple police officers that day,” the judge said. 

The welder threw a chair that prosecutors said, “directly contributed to the fall of the police line that enabled rioters to flood forward and take over the entire terrace.” Additionally, he sprayed pepper spray at police, using a “super soaker” canister. Prosecutors said that no officers were hit with the spray. 

“While the stream of liquid did not directly hit any officer, its effect was to heighten the danger to the officers in that tunnel,” prosecutor Jocelyn Bond said. 

Schwartz’s wife was also sentenced to two years in prison over her actions on January 6 and has reportedly filed for divorce. In a previous interview, Schwartz referred to his trial as “a sham, in the face of irrefutable video evidence.”

A suspect accused of shooting a New York City police officer who had his bond paid by a former NFL running back is now working as a for-hire driver, according to a new report. 

The New York Post reported that Nelson Pizarro, who is accused of shooting a cop during a drug search, has taken on a new gig as a livery driver after being bailed out of jail by former Green Bay Packers running back Ryan Grant. 

After 11 months in jail for allegedly shooting Detective Dominick Libretti in January 2022, Pizarro was let out in December. Police sources told the Post that Pizarro and Grant were “close friends” and that Pizarro was given approval to work as a livery driver after initially being put on house arrest. 

Sources added that Pizarro, who has former gun-related and drug convictions, had driven not far from Libretti’s home.

“He’s just got free rein of all the boroughs,” a law enforcement source said. “So there’s pretty much no repercussions for shooting a cop.”

Libretti, who was shot in the leg during the drug raid, said that he was shocked when he learned about Pizarro’s reported gig. Libretti spent about a week in the hospital after the shooting and he had reconstructive shooting. 

“How do you not tell me that this guy’s out driving on the freeway,” Libretti reportedly said. “It’s just a slap in the face to the whole job.”

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Grant, who won a Super Bowl with the Packers in 2011, grew up in Rockland County New York before attending the University of Notre Dame. He was injured for the majority of the Packers’ 2011 Super Bowl year, but still got a ring as part of the team. 

Pizarro was charged with first-degree attempted murder, attempted aggravated murder of a police officer, criminal possession of a firearm, and attempted assault with a weapon. 

He said that he believed his house was being broken into during the police operation. “I thought I was getting robbed,” he reportedly said. “Is the cop going to be OK?”

Lance Lazzaro, who is representing Pizarro, said that the bail had been set too high. 

Only one side of the story has been told so far,” he said. “The bail should never have been that high.”