20-Year Old Capitol Rioter Caught & Sentenced To Jail For Jan 6Attack

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Capitol rioter and Pennsylvania resident Leonard Pearson “Pearce” Ridge IV — who was just 19 years old at the time of the storming of the Capitol complex and is now 20 — has been sentenced to 14 days of incarceration and one year of probation, in addition to getting slapped with 100 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine. The Philadelphia Inquirer says that Ridge was “choking back tears” as he told federal Judge John Boasberg, “If I could do it over again, I would have never entered that building or done any of the things I did that day.” That’s definitely different from the way that he approached January 6: while making his way to D.C., he told a friend through Snapchat: “I think we’re going to try to block the session of Congress.”

Obviously, an attempt to block the session of Congress that was scheduled for that day is exactly what ended up unfolding, although it proved to be unsuccessful, allowing the democratic processes at work to continue. Commenting on the issue of Ridge’s “Snapchat bluster,” as the Inquirer summarized it, Boasberg told Ridge: “There are perhaps people who attended the rally who were swept up in the crowd, or swept up in the moment… But that is not true for you, given your previous statements.” Prosecutors had been seeking 45 days in jail for Ridge, who pleaded guilty late last year to a single count of entering a restricted area, which is a misdemeanor offense and could have apparently gotten him up to a year in jail.

Ridge’s lawyer Carina Laguzzi pulled out just about all the stops in her attempted defense, observing that Ridge appeared to have substantially overstated his actual actions at the Capitol on social media and claiming that he “really did not understand that walking into the Capitol building would be such an egregious act. And while many are calling for incarceration of all of the people involved in the case, it is important to see the situation for what it is. He was extremely young.”

Laguzzi also pointed to studies questioning the point at which individuals’ brains are fully developed… a point, as she laid it out, that Ridge may have not reached at the time of the riot. As Newsweek explained it, “Laguzzi noted that some studies have found a person’s brain is not fully mature until they’re in their mid-20s. She added that the studies have prompted debates about what age a person should be held responsible for their actions and the United States Sentencing Commission has acknowledged age should be a factor.”