Farmingdale Man Sentenced To Prison After Capitol Breach Guilty Plea

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Farmingdale man was sentenced to 41 months in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers and other felonies at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the United States Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Greg Rubenacker, 26, and others disrupted the U.S. Congress as it counted electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election, the department said.

Rubenacker engaged in a series of confrontations with law enforcement officers inside the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, according to court documents. He entered the Capitol Building through the Senate Wing Door around 2:13 p.m. and recorded a video in which he said, "This is history! We took the Capitol," officials said.

He was in a crowd that was yelling “where are they counting the votes,” and eventually chased a U.S. Capitol Police officer securing the area, authorities said. Rubenacker left the building at 2:21 p.m. but returned 21 minutes later through the Rotunda Door. While in the Rotunda, he smoked marijuana, recording another video that he later posted to a social media website with the caption, “Smoke out the Capitol, baby," prosecutors said.

Rubenacker and others resisted officers attempting to remove people from the Rotunda, officials said. At 3:08 p.m., he swung a plastic bottle at an officer’s head and then sprayed water from his bottle across law enforcement officers engaging with others, authorities said.

Law enforcement officers pepper-sprayed the crowd, including Rubenacker, who exited the Capitol at 3:20 p.m., officials said.

Rubenacker was arrested on Feb. 9, 2021, in Farmingdale. Rubenacker pleaded guilty on Feb. 11 to charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, civil disorder, obstructing an official proceeding, and committing an act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds.

Following his prison term, Rubenacker will be placed on three years of supervised release. He must also pay $2,000 in restitution.

Rubenacker is one of 800 people to be arrested in the 16 months since the Capitol breach.