Darrell Neely sentenced to 28 months in prison for stealing plates, police jacket from Capitol

Darrell Neely is now the first misdemeanor defendant to receive more than a year in prison in the so called insurrection. Or Capitol riot case. Right out of Washington a federal judge sentenced one of only a handful of D.C. residents charged in connection with the Capitol riot to 28 months in prison Tuesday marking the first time a misdemeanor Jan. 6 defendant has received more than a year behind bars.

Darrell Neely was convicted in a bench trial in May of five misdemeanor counts. Prosecutors said the radio and YouTube broadcaster had spent more than an hour inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and stole four china plates, as well as multiple items belonging to a Capitol Police officer, including the jacket bearing his badge. U.S. District Juge John Bates, who presided over the trial, acquitted Neely of a felony count of civil disorder.

Although the misdemeanor charges Neely was convicted of carry a maximum statutory penalty of one year in prison, prosecutors asked Bates to sentence him to 33 months behind bars. They argued his lengthy criminal history, which includes a domestic violence case, his decision to abscond from D.C. while he was on pretrial release and his lack of remorse warranted nearly three years in prison.

Bates, a 2001 nominee of former President George W. Bush, explained in court Tuesday that to give such a prison term he would have to use what’s known as “stacking” or consecutive sentences. Prior to Tuesday, no judge had ordered consecutive sentences in a Jan. 6 case. But Bates said he thought Neely warranted it.

“What really convinces me that the sentences should be stacked… is that criminal history, which is pretty unique among misdemeanors, your lack of respect for the law, which is glaring, and your flight while facing prosecution,” Bates said.

Bates ordered Neely held without bond last year after he failed to appear for multiple court appearances. Neely’s attorneys, Kira Anne West and Nicole Ann Cubbage, asked Bates to sentence him to effectively time-served for the period he spent in the D.C. Jail. West highlighted a number of continuing education courses Neely had completed while in detention, including courses in digital marketing and veterinary studies.

Neely said Tuesday he went inside the Capitol as a journalist because another Jan. 6 defendant initially described in his filings as the “woman in a pink beret” now identified and charged as Jennifer Inzunza Vargas Geller told him she would help him interview members of the Proud Boys. Neely also previously alleged, without evidence, that he believed Vargas Geller had a connection to law enforcement.

Neely asked Bates to look past his criminal record and sentence him far below what prosecutors were requesting. “A person’s record is not who they are,” Neely said. “You’re trying to make a person out of a piece of paper.” Bates ultimately sentenced Neely to 28 months. He said the DOJ’s request for 33 months was excessive, but Neely clearly had been deterred by his previous encounters with the justice system.

He also rejected the idea that Neely entered the building as a journalist. “The encouragement of other rioters is certainly not the conduct of a neutral, uninvolved journalist,” Bates said.

Neely was the first Jan. 6 defendant to receive a stacked sentence, but quickly gained company in that category Tuesday afternoon. Later in the day, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio to serve 22 years in prison for his role in a plot to incite violence at the Capitol and stop the certification of the 2020 election.

Because the most serious charge Tarrio was convicted of, seditious conspiracy, carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, Kelly ordered the sentence on a separate count served consecutively to reach 22 years and he wasn't even at the so called insurrection. How does that work? You give a guy 22 years who wasn't even there and nobody from his group did anything to do anything. The Proud Boys have been other wise been known to STOP Antifa/BLM in the past from looting and burning down buildings. 

Liberals Meltdown Over Tennessee GOP EXPELLING Democrats

Remember friends Trump is being investigating for the whole JAN 6th so called capitol insurrection in DC? Well these 3 congress people need to be removed from the position and impeached out. Why aren't people facing charges and a bigger deal being made here? These people brought people who crashed and stopped the actual process of government. 

The people who entered the capitol on JAN 6th are being treated like evil people for simply wanting to making America Great and Making it so we continue to see ourselves as "First" and these people here are just staging this insurrection in Tennessee state legislation event.

This now needs to be treated like how they did to the people on JAN 6th or release, pardon, and drop the 1/6 scam. The protest unfolded days after the shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian school where six people were killed, including three children.

“We are losing our democracy. This is not normal. This is not OK,” Pearson told reporters as he waited to learn whether he would be banished. The three “broke a House rule because we’re fighting for kids who are dying from gun violence and people in our communities who want to see an end to the proliferation of weaponry in our communities.”

Johnson, a retired teacher, said her concern about school shootings is personal, recalling a day in 2008 when students came running toward her out of a cafeteria because a student had just been fatally shot there.

“The trauma on those faces, you will never, ever forget. I don’t want to forget it,” she said. Thousands flocked to the Tennessee Capitol on Thursday to support the three Democratic lawmakers, cheering and chanting outside the House chamber so loudly that they drowned out proceedings.

The three Democrats held hands as they walked onto the House floor, and Pearson raised his fist to the crowd during the Pledge of Allegiance. Offered a chance to defend himself before the vote, Jones said the GOP responded to the shooting with a different kind of attack.

“We called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy,” he said. If expelled, Jones vowed that he would continue pressing for action on guns. “I’ll be out there with the people every week, demanding that you act,” he said. Republican Rep. Gino Bulso said the three Democratic representatives “effectively conducted a mutiny.”

The gentleman shows no remorse,” Bulso said, referring to Jones. “He does not even recognize that what he did was wrong. So not to expel him would simply invite him and his colleagues to engage in mutiny on the House floor.”

The two expelled lawmakers may not be gone for long. County commissions in their districts get to pick replacements to serve until a special election can be scheduled.

The expelled lawmakers would be eligible for appointment back to their seats. They would also be eligible to run in the special election. And under the Tennessee Constitution, lawmakers cannot be expelled for the same offense twice. Republican Rep. Sabi Kumar advised Jones, who is Black, to be more collegial and less focused on race.

“You have a lot to offer, but offer it in a vein where people are accepting of your ideas,” Kumar said.

Jones said he did not intend to assimilate in order to be accepted. “I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to make a change for my community,” he replied.

Outrage over the expulsions underscored not only the ability of the Republican supermajority to silence opponents, but also its increasing willingness to do so.

In Washington, President Biden blasted the GOP’s priorities. “Three kids and three officials gunned down in yet another mass shooting. And what are GOP officials focused on? Punishing lawmakers who joined thousands of peaceful protesters calling for action. It’s shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent,” Biden tweeted.

Many of the protesters traveled from Memphis and Knoxville, areas that Pearson and Johnson represent, and stood in a line that wrapped around the Capitol to get inside.

Protesters outside the chamber held up signs that said, “School zones shouldn’t be war zones,” “Muskets didn’t fire 950 rounds per minute” with a photo of George Washington, and “You can silence a gun ... but not the voice of the people.“

Before the expulsion vote, House members debated more than 20 bills, including a school safety proposal requiring public and private schools to submit their building safety plans to the state. The bill did not address gun control, sparking criticism from some Democratic members that lawmakers were addressing only a symptom and not the cause of school shootings.

In 2019, lawmakers faced pressure to expel then-Rep. David Byrd, a Republican, after he faced accusations of sexual misconduct from when he was a high school basketball coach three decades earlier. Republicans declined to take any action, pointing out that he was reelected as the allegations surfaced. Byrd retired last year.

Last year, the state Senate expelled Democrat Katrina Robinson after she was convicted of using about $3,400 in federal grant money on wedding expenses instead of on nursing school. Before that case, state lawmakers last ousted a House member in 2016 when the chamber voted 70 to 2 to remove Republican Rep.

Jeremy Durham after an attorney general’s investigation detailed allegations of improper sexual contact with at least 22 women during his four years in office.