N.J. man sentenced to 41 months for assaulting officer, stiffest punishment yet in Jan. 6 cases

Scott Fairlamb is the first person sentenced for assaulting a police officer in the Capitol attack.

WASHINGTON (TIP): A New Jersey gym owner who punched a D.C. police officer outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced Wednesday, November 10 to 41 months in prison by a federal judge who called his actions “an affront to society and to the law” and said he was smart to plead guilty rather than take his chances with a jury that would see numerous videos of his actions.

Scott Kevin Fairlamb, 44, was captured on various videos screaming profanely in support of the pro-Trump insurrection, climbing on the inauguration scaffolding outside the Capitol, and then pushing an officer into a group of people and punching the officer’s face shield, as well as briefly entering and exiting the Capitol, according to court filings and footage played in court. Fairlamb trained as a mixed martial arts fighter and was bar bouncer in New Jersey with two prior assault convictions.

The sentence of 41 months is the stiffest yet handed down to a Capitol rioter. Of the 126 people who have pleaded guilty so far, only 16 have admitted to felonies, and Fairlamb is the third felon to be sentenced. The other two felons, who were not accused of violence against the police, received sentences of eight and 14 months.

In the days after the assault on Congress, Fairlamb posted and then deleted videos of himself at the Capitol, and issued statements such as “It’s go time,” “Q said this word for word,” and “I’d go again,” according to court records. Prosecutors on Wednesday played videos of Fairlamb assaulting the D.C. police officer and shouting at him, “Are you an American? Act like … one. You guys have no idea what the … you’re doing!”

But Fairlamb has since become apologetic, with his attorney saying in his sentencing memorandum that “he did, in fact, feel as if he had been duped by social media prior to Jan. 6.” He agreed to meet with the House Select Committee investigating the attack, which his lawyer said the D.C. jail denied, and he suffered a heart attack while in custody.

The federal sentencing guidelines called for a sentencing range of 41 to 51 months. Prosecutors asked Judge Royce Lamberth to impose 44 months. Fairlamb’s lawyer, Harley Breite, asked for a sentence of 11 months, the time he has already served since his January arrest. Fairlamb pleaded guilty in August to assaulting an officer and obstructing an official proceeding of Congress.

“I take full responsibility for what I did,” Fairlamb told the judge. “That is not Scott Fairlamb. That’s not who I am. That’s not who I was raised to be. I truly regret my actions that day. I have nothing but remorse.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Goemaat, after laying out Fairlamb’s activities and playing some videos for the judge, told Lamberth that Fairlamb targeted police officers and contributed to “the chaos and the fear” of that afternoon. “It is just critical,” Goemaat said, “that the court’s sentence convey to future rioters that there will be very very serious consequences for those who intend to obstruct the rule of law and obstruct democracy, particularly through assaults on law enforcement.”

She said she wasn’t going to jail for Jan. 6, citing ‘blonde hair white skin.’ A judge sentenced her to 60 days behind bars. Fairlamb was not accused of conspiring with anyone or causing any damage to the Capitol, though he was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution for damages to the building. He also was captured on video speaking with Capitol Police officers, offering them water and walking them away from an entrance to the building, which prosecutors said the officers corroborated.

Fairlamb drove alone from his home in Sussex, N.J., on the morning of Jan. 6 and did not bring any weapons. Prosecutors noted he picked up a police baton from the ground, and was photographed carrying it, but did not appear to use it on anyone. When he first arrived at the Capitol, he was photographed holding a sign that read “Area Closed” while gesturing with his middle finger toward the camera, according to court records.

Next, he was seen on the inauguration scaffolding and posted video from that vantage point to Instagram, prosecutors said in their sentencing memo. “We ain’t … leaving either! We ain’t … leaving!” Fairlamb is heard screaming, in a video which Goemaat played in court Wednesday.

Fairlamb is next seen at a skirmish line with police, crossing it as barricades were pushed over, and picking up the police baton, court records show. He then posted a video on Facebook, holding the baton, and yelling, “What Patriots do? We … disarm them and then we storm the … Capitol!” Fairlamb also posted selfies of himself holding the baton and placing an unexploded pepper ball in his teeth. Surveillance video shows Fairlamb entering the Capitol moments after the Senate wing door was opened, then leaving through the same door minutes later. Soon after, he is seen offering Capitol Police water and helping them to leave the area.

But within 20 minutes, prosecutors said, he is seen shoving and then punching a D.C. officer, identified as “Z.B.” Goemaat said the officer submitted a victim impact statement that said he had never felt the dread and fear he felt when he was dispatched to the Capitol. “It was the scariest day of his career,” Goemaat said the officer wrote. The officer was not injured.

Lamberth noted that Fairlamb was the first defendant to be sentenced for assaulting an officer, and that he had watched the videos of Fairlamb on Jan. 6.

“Had you gone to trial,” the judge said, “I don’t think there’s any jury that could have acquitted you or would have acquitted you. You certainly made the right decision, you and your attorney, to plead guilty.”

Lamberth said, “It’s such a serious offense under the circumstances, an affront to society and to the law, to have the Capitol overrun and to have this riot stop the whole functioning government, that I just find that it’s such a serious crime that I cannot give a below-guideline sentence.” The judge said the minimum sentence under the guidelines, 41 months, was appropriate. Lamberth rejected the government’s request to impose a fine on Fairlamb, who said he had lost his gym as a result of his arrest.

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