Where Jan. 6 Criminal Cases In NJ Stand On Insurrection's Anniversary

NEW JERSEY — In the two years since the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, more than 900 people have been charged with crimes, including dozens of New Jersey residents.

New Jersey's connections to the incident linger, from rioters to victims to key witnesses. On the day of the attack, a Garden State resident pepper-sprayed several officers, including New Jersey native Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes hours after and died one day later.

Related articles:

• NJ Jan 6. Rioter Who Pepper-Sprayed Cop Who Died Pleads Guilty
• Ex-White House Aide From NJ Says Trump Attacked Agent On Jan. 6
• Jan. 6 Hearing Recounts NJ Native, Cop Defending U.S. Capitol

Two years later, several New Jersey residents have been criminally sentenced for actions stemming from the riot, while other cases remain ongoing.

Here are the sentencings involving the Garden State so far:

1. Rasha N. Abual-Ragheb: pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building; sentenced Nov. 23, 2021, to 36 months probation with two months home confinement, 60 hours of community service, and $500 restitution. Read more: NJ Mom Charged In Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Spared Prison
2. Thomas Baranyi: pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building; sentenced June 17 to 90 days in jail, one year of supervised release, 60 hours of community service and $500 restitution. Read more: NJ Jan. 6 Rioter Interviewed With Bloody Hand Sentenced: Report
3. Lawrence Dropkin Jr.: pleaded guilty to entering or remaining on a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building; sentenced Oct. 7 to 30 days of incarceration, one year of supervised release, 60 hours of community service and $500 restitution.
4. Scott Kevin Fairlamb: arrested in Stockholm; pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; sentenced Nov. 10, 2021, to 41 months incarceration. Read more: NJ Capitol Rioter Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison
5. Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli: arrested in Colts Neck; found guilty of all charges: civil disorder; aiding and abetting, obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; impeding ingress and egress in a restricted building; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building; sentenced Sept. 22 to 48 months in prison, three years of supervised release, $2,000 restitution. Read more: Capitol Rioter From Colts Neck Sentenced
6. Robert Lee Petrosh: arrested in Mays Landing; pleaded guilty to theft of government property; sentenced March 25 to 10 days in jail, to be followed by 12 months of supervised release, $1,000 fine and $938 restitution. Read more: 2 South Jersey Men Plead Guilty To Capitol Riot Crimes: Report
7. Lawrence Earl Stackhouse: pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building; sentenced June 17 to 14 days in jail (intermittent, two 7-day periods), 90 days home confinement, 36 months of probation and $500 restitution. Read more.
8. Marissa A. Suarez: pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building; sentenced July 12 to 36 months probation, $2,000 fine, $500 restitution and 60 hours community service. Read more: Ex-Monmouth Corrections Officer Indicted On Capitol Riot Charges
9. Patricia Todisco: pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building; sentenced July 12 to 36 months probation, $2,000 fine, $500 restitution and 60 hours community service. Read more.

The Department of Justice also lists several New Jersey arrests stemming from the riot with cases that remain ongoing. Here are the arrest dates and locations, according to the DOJ:

1. James Breheny: May 20, 2021, in Woodland Park. Read more: NJ Man Charged With Destroying Evidence He Breached U.S. Capitol
2. Mick Chan: Sept. 21, 2021, in Newark.
3. Russell Dodge Jr.: Nov. 15 in Cherry Hill. Read more: Father, Son Charged In Capitol Riot With Third South Jersey Man: Feds
4. Michael Gianos: Dec. 1, 2021, in Marlton. Read more.
5. Juliano Gross: Jan. 11, 2021, in Kearny; pleaded guilty May 12 to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
6. Stephanie Hazelton: Jan. 22, 2021, in Medford; pleaded guilty Oct. 14 to civil disorder and aiding and abetting.
7. Julian Khater: March 15, 2021, in Newark; pleaded guilty Sept. 1 to two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon.
8. David Krauss: Nov. 15 in Cherry Hill. Read more.
9. Nicholas Krauss: Nov. 15 in Cherry Hill. Read more.
10. Michael Oliveras: Dec. 9, 2021, in Marlton. Read more: NJ Man Charged In Capitol Riot After Tip About Parler Posts
11. Shawn Price: June 8, 2021, in Rockaway Township; pleaded guilty Oct. 14 to civil disorder.
12. Christopher Joseph Quaglin: April 7, 2021, in New Brunswick. Read more: NJ Man Assaulted Cops With 'Chemical' At Capitol Riots: Feds
13. Ezekiel Kurt Stecher: March 9, 2021, in Mantua Township. Read more: NJ Farmers Market Owner Charged In Capitol Riots: Reports
14. Patrick Stedman: Jan. 21, 2021, in Haddonfield. Read more: More Restrictions For Haddonfield Man Charged In Capitol Riot
15. Hector Emmanuel Vargas Santos: Jan. 19, 2021, in Jersey City.
16. Salvatore Vassallo: Sept. 15 in Toms River. Read more: Jan. 6 Arrest In Toms River: Man Charged With Assaulting Officer
17. Philip S. Young: Aug. 19, 2021, in Sewell; pleaded guilty Nov. 2 to obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees of the United States in the performance of their official duties. Read more: NJ Capitol Rioter Pleads Guilty To Officer Assault Charge, 6 Others

One New Jersey resident's charges were dismissed Nov. 3.

The violent siege on the Capitol two years ago was an attempt to stop the certification of electoral votes declaring Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election. It resulted in the deaths of five people during or soon after the attack, including two Capitol police officers and one rioter. About 140 police officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department were assaulted in the attack, according to the Justice Department.

It was the first in U.S. history that the transfer of power from one administration to another was not peaceful. In a speech before rioters attacked the Capitol, Trump repeated the same claims he had been making in the two months since the election that it had been stolen, then urged his supporters to walk from the rally site on the National Mall to the Capitol.

Biden is expected to mark the two-year anniversary of the insurrection with remarks Friday in the East Room of the White House, according to a schedule released Monday by his office. The White House did not provide details, according to reports from The Hill and others.

In a blistering criticism of the insurrection last year, Biden did not mention Trump by name, but squarely blamed the “defeated president” for the attack he said raised global concerns about the future of American democracy.

During its sweeping nearly 18-month investigation, the Jan. 6 committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, held 10 hearings and obtained more than a million pages of documents before releasing its 814-page report last month.

The panel came to the unanimous conclusion that Trump coordinated a “conspiracy” on multiple levels, pressuring states, federal officials and lawmakers to try to overturn his defeat, and inspired a violent mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol and interrupt the certification of Biden’s win.

Chairman Bernie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, called the final report a “roadmap to justice” for Trump, whose actions leading up to the insurrection were the nearly singular focus of the committee.

“Donald Trump lit that fire,” Thompson wrote in the committee’s final report. “But in the weeks beforehand, the kindling he ultimately ignited was amassed in plain sight.”

The committee’s criminal referral asks the Justice Department to consider charges against Trump related to inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and obstruction of an official proceeding. The referral is largely symbolic, and the Justice Department is under no obligation to comply with recommendations in the unprecedented referral.

Witnesses, who ranged from many of Trump’s closest aides to law enforcement officers to some of the rioters themselves, detailed Trump’s “premeditated” actions ahead of the attack and told the committee how his wide-ranging efforts to overturn his defeat directly influenced those who brutally pushed past the police and smashed through the windows and doors of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the months, weeks and days leading up to Jan. 6, “stop the steal” rallies built on the former president’s unsubstantiated accusations were held in Trump strongholds and swing states. The first was four days after the 2020 presidential election, on Nov. 7, 2020, at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, but other notable rallies were held in Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina.

From Jan. 5-7, 2021, Trump supporters staged 39 “stop the steal” protests in their state capitals, according to a report from the Bridging Divides Initiative, a project of Princeton University.

The attack promoted the most expansive federal law enforcement investigation in U.S. history. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $500,000 for information leading to the conviction of those responsible for placing pipe bombs in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021. The agency is still seeking the public’s help to identify people pictured in 1,433 photos taken the day of the insurrection.

Less than half (335) of the cases have been adjudicated and the defendants have received their sentences, including 185 who have been sentenced to incarceration.

Among the most closely watched trials was that of Oath Keepers leaders Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs, who were found guilty of seditious conspiracy — the most serious of the charges so far — in late November.

Three of their co-defendants were acquitted of the charge. Four other individuals have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges.

Seditious conspiracy charges reflect the Justice Department’s belief that the Capitol breach was a grave threat to the operation of the U.S. government.

Under the rarely-used federal seditious conspiracy law, enacted after the American Civil War, charges are filed when two or more people plot to “overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the United States or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder or delay the execution of any law of the United States.”

As the federal criminal cases continue, the FBI is continuing to ask for the public’s help in finding others who participated in the attack, which cell phone technology made one of the most documented crimes in U.S. history. Many of the Justice Department’s cases have been built on video footage of the attack, social media posts, phone location data and tips from the public, and federal prosecutors say hundreds more cases could be filed.

Trials will continue this year and perhaps into 2024.