WASHINGTON — A Jefferson County man who took part in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced Thursday to more than five years in prison.
Jeffrey Sabol, 53, from Kittredge, was sentenced to 63 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $32,000 in restitution.
Sabol was convicted in August 2023 of three felonies at a bench trial. Those charges were:
- Obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting
- Federal robbery
- Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon and aiding and abetting
Sabol went to Washington to attend the "Stop the Steal" rally, according to court documents. He had packed a helmet, a trauma kit, a buck knife and zip ties, the facts in the case state.
After the rally, Sabol went with others to the Capitol building. He ended up on the West Plaza and was on the front of the line of rioters confronting police officers, court documents say.
Just after 2 p.m., Sabol and another rioter pushed a third rioter, who was holding a riot shield, into a line of police officers. Sabol kept pushing forward and slammed a police officer's riot shield, court documents say. A U.S. Capitol Police officer pushed Sabol back, causing him to fall down some stairs, according to the stipulated facts in the case.
Sabol then made his way to the front of a mob of rioters who were confronting police on the west side of the Capitol, court documents say. He rushed the line of officers and pushed against a riot shield held by an officer. Sabol and the mob were able to break the police officers' line causing officers to fall back and the mob to rush the south side of the West Plaza, court documents say.
Over the next two hours, Sabol continued to engage law enforcement near the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, where some of the most violent attacks on officers occurred, court documents say. Federal officials said Sabol violently wrestled an officer's baton out of their hand while the officer was on the ground trying to protect themselves.
He was also seen on video assisting two other rioters in dragging a law enforcement officer down the steps and into the mob, where rioters beat the officer with a baton and a flagpole, court documents say.
In the days after the Capitol riot, Sabol deleted texts and other communications from his phone, and destroyed his laptop in a microwave, court documents say. He also threw his cell phone into a body of water.
Sabol then booked a flight to Zurich, Switzerland to flee the country, but was not able to board the flight. He then rented a car and drove to Westchester, New York where the FBI arrested him on Jan. 11.
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