WASHINGTON — A Colorado man was found guilty for his part in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
Jeffrey Sabol, 53, was convicted on Friday after a bench trial before U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras.
Sabol, who is from Kittredge in Jefferson County, was convicted on:
- obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting
- federal robbery
- assaulting and resisting, or impeding certain officers with deadly or dangerous weapon and aiding and abetting
Sabol traveled to Washington with several members of what he had described as a "neighborhood watch" group to attend a Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse, according to evidence the government had collected.
He brought a buck knife, a helmet, trauma kit and zip ties to the rally, the Department of Justice said in a release. After the rally, Sabol and at least one other member of their group walked to the Capitol.
Sabol told authorities that as they approached the Capitol, he saw that "a battle was already going on." He broke off from the group and began wrestling with the police officers who were protecting the Capitol grounds, the DOJ said.
At 2:04 p.m., Sabol and another man pushed a third rioter who was holding a riot shield into a police line. As the officers worked to repel them, Sabol kept pushing against the officers until a Capitol officer pushed back, which caused Sabol to fall down a set of steps, the DOJ said.
Thirty minutes later, Sabol and another rioter were seen grabbing at a helmet visor that was being held by a Metropolitan Police (MPD) officer and a tug-of-war ensued. He then made his way to the Lower West Terrace tunnel and archway.
Just before 4:30 p.m., an MPD officer near the archway was knocked down, the DOJ said. As the officer tried to defend himself, Sabol grabbed the officer's baton and ripped it out of his hands. The DOJ said Sabol used such force to wrestle the baton from the officer that he fell backward down the steps.
Sabol climbed back up the Lower West Terrace steps and helped two other rioters drag another officer face down the steps into the mob, where the officer was beaten by the mob with a flagpole and a baton.
In the days following the insurrection, Sabol deleted texts and other messages from his cell phone, the DOJ said. He also asked another person to delete a video which showed Sabol after he had been pepper sprayed and in which Sabol said he had "tried to rush the front gate, the front door." Sabol also destroyed his laptops by putting them in a microwave, and threw his cell phone in a body of water, the DOJ said.
Sabol then booked a flight to Zurich, Switzerland but was unable to board the aircraft. He then rented a car and drove toward Westchester, New York where he was taken into custody by local police officers on Jan. 11, 2021.
Sabol is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 24.
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