During sentencing proceedings this week for a convicted Capitol rioter who attacked a police officer from behind while participating in the melee, the targeted officer directly addressed his previous assailant, deeming the defendant a “coward.”
The officer, Kenrick Ellis with the U.S. Capitol Police, is also a veteran, having served in the U.S. military overseas. The defendant, Ralph Celentano, specifically shoved Ellis over a ledge, violently sending him into a crowd including police and other rioters on the other side. “I believed that was how my life was going to end that day,” Ellis attested in court, according to NBC. And speaking directly to Celentano, Ellis added: “You’re not a patriot. You’re a coward.” Celentano received six and a half years in prison.
In news of the same vein, a recently sentenced Capitol rioter was actually ordered as part of his newly imposed obligations to pay tens of thousands of dollars to cover medical expenses for an officer with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. Defendant Clayton Ray Mullins dragged the leg of an officer with that police agency while the target struggled on the ground. Mullins also shoved another officer down a series of stairs. The financial penalties meant to cover medical costs reach $30,165, with tens of thousands of dollars in additional penalties covering general fines and restitution specifically towards the Architect of the Capitol.
Elsewhere in Capitol riot cases, the government recently secured a judge’s order for Louisiana’s Edward Richmond Jr. to be detained amid further proceedings after authorities found a reportedly loaded AR-15 firearm in his residence at the time of arrest, as previously reported on this site. Richmond was charged with assaulting police at the Capitol. He was decked out in tactical gear in tandem with service on a personal security team for an individual who’s gone unnamed in court documents but spoke with authorities, filings say. Richmond has a decades-old conviction on a manslaughter claim for shooting and killing a civilian overseas while in the military.
