A Santa Ana man who sprayed pepper spray at retreating police officers in the midst of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was sentenced Friday to four and a half years in federal prison.
Months after Jeffrey Scott Brown, 56, joined co-defendants from Pennsylvania and Virginia in becoming the first of the Jan. 6-related defendants to be convicted of assaulting officers with pepper spray, Brown during a hearing in a Washington D.C. courtroom received what is so far the harshest sentence among the Capitol riot defendants with Southern California ties.
A federal jury in December found Brown guilty of assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon and interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder, among other related charges. According to prosecutors, Brown was one of three rioters who were spraying the officers, including an officer whose gas mask had been ripped off by another rioter.
Brown gained attention a month before the Jan. 6 Insurrection by staging a loud, one-man protest within a Tustin Costco by standing on a table covered with clothes and yelling about California’s pandemic-era restrictions. Video of the protest was later posted on social media.
In the leadup to Jan. 6, prosecutors say, Brown stated during an appearance on “Info Wars” that he was planning to travel to Washington D.C., and in social media posts urged others to make the trip as well, telling them “get to DC if you can … doing nothing is no longer an option” and extorting them to “Fight the corruption to the end!” and “Fight for Trump!”
On the day of the riot, Brown attended Trump’s rally before joining thousands of Trump supporters in walking to the Capitol building, where many members of the crowd forced their way into the restricted building, leading lawmakers to escape to safety and delaying the counting of electoral votes and the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.
According to prosecutors, Brown was in the midst of the crowd of rioters as they faced off against Metropolitan Police Department officers within a tunnel on the Capitol grounds.
Another person handed Brown a canister, prosecutors said, and Brown made his way to the front of the line of rioters, then sprayed an orange liquid above the heads of the line of officers. Brown then joined the other rioters in using “their combined weight” to “push the officers back,” as the crowd yelled “Heave Ho.” At least one officer was temporarily crushed against a door frame, while another’s riot shield was pushed against his body, prosecutors alleged.
They acknowledged that the stream of liquid sprayed by Brown “did not directly hit any officers,” but argued that “its effect was to heighten the danger to the officers in that tunnel. An officer testified during Brown’s trial that due to the direction of the wind the spray blew back toward the police line.
Unlike most Jan. 6 defendants, Brown was held behind bars pending trial, due to what a judge cited as his “egregious actions at the Capitol.”
In a written sentencing brief filed with the court, prosecutors argued that Brown has not expressed any remorse for his actions. In a video message posted online on a crowdfunding website, Brown referred to himself as a “political prisoner” who had been detained “due to political motivations.” He also claimed that the Capitol police had attacked rioters “unprovoked,” that police had “initiated” the violence and gave a “five-alarm warning to all freedom-loving patriots, they need to get out of their comfort zones, take actions in their communities and wake all of their neighbors that they can.”
“Brown’s actions on January 6 show an absolute disregard for the rule of law coupled with a willingness to engage in violence,” prosecutors wrote.
Brown’s attorney, Samuel Moore, wrote in his own sentencing brief that Brown is “aware of the seriousness of the events of Jan. 6,” with the defense attorney arguing that Brown was there to peacefully protest as part of what turned out to be a “violent and destructive” event. The defense attorney disputed that Brown sprayed pepper spray at the officers, but acknowledged that “Mr. Brown readily admits that he should never have been in the tunnel that day; one look inside should have cautioned him away.”
“He is neither a life-long criminal, nor a long-term partisan zealot, as many seek to portray him; rather, he is just a man trying to earn a living, help those around him, and stand up for the broader democratic principles that he values,” Moore wrote.
During Friday’s sentencing hearing, Brown asked for leniency, questioned whether Jan. 6 was a riot and alleged bias in media coverage of his case, contending he and other defendants had been unfairly labeled as extremists, according to a CBS News reporter. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta reportedly responded that Jan. 6 was indeed a riot, which Brown took part in, and which threatened the peaceful transfer of power.
See also: List: These Southern California residents are accused of taking part in the Capitol riot
Brown is among more than a dozen people with Southern California ties who have been convicted for their roles in the Capitol riot. More than two-dozen locals have been charged in connection to the insurrection.
Most of those convicted thus far have reached plea deals in which they admitted to what most-often amount to trespassing in restricted areas and received either short stints behind bars, supervised release or community service.
However, Brown isn’t the first Jan. 6 defendant with local ties to receive a multi-year sentence. Earlier this week, Erik Herrera, a photographer from El Cajon who photographed himself while helping trash the Senate Parliamentarian’s office, stole a bottle of alcohol and smoked marijuana in a Senator’s office during the Jan. 6 riot received four years in federal prison. And last year, Christian Alexander Secor, a 24-year-old Costa Mesa man who sat in former Vice President Mike Pence’s vacated seat while storming the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
Source: Orange County Register
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