WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — A Douglas County man who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot was sentenced to prison Thursday morning.
Patrick Montgomery, 51, will spend three years behind bars and will have three years of supervised release after his prison sentence is served.
Montgomery was convicted in May of felony offenses of obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Fischer v. United States, the government voluntarily moved pre-sentencing to dismiss Montgomery’s conviction on obstruction of an official proceeding, the U.S. District Attorney's Office in Washington said.
According to court documents, Montgomery and two men from Utah, Brady Knowlton and Gary Wilson, attended the "Stop the Steal" rally.
After the rally the three men entered a restricted area and made their way to the West Front of the building, court documents say.
Just after 2 p.m., Montgomery grabbed a Capitol police officer's baton trying to wrestle it away. Montgomery and the officer fell to the ground, wrestling for the baton, according to the stipulated facts in the case. During the struggle, Montgomery kicked the officer in the chest.
After the incident with the officer, Montgomery, Knowlton and Wilson went up the Upper West Terrace Stairs with a mass of people, court documents say. Montgomery and the Utahns then entered the Capitol and ascended stairs to the second floor, entered the Rotunda, and then went up the stairs to the third floor.
At about 2:45 p.m., the three men entered the Senate Gallery and then went back downstairs to the second floor and ended up near the Senate Floor where they encountered a U.S. Capitol Police officer, according to court documents.
Montgomery yelled at the police officer, "You gotta stop doing your job sometime and start being American. You gotta quit doing your job and be an American!"
The three men left the Capitol just before 3 p.m.
The FBI said three people left them tips on Jan. 7, 2021 identifying Montgomery as taking part in the insurrection at the Capitol.