A three-judge panel on the federal court of appeals for Washington, D.C., has rejected an appeal by Capitol riot defendant Owen Shroyer, who is an associate of far-right media figure Alex Jones.
Shroyer agreed to an appeal waiver in moving forward with what previously included a guilty plea, and he did “not argue that his appeal waiver was not knowing, intelligent, and voluntary, and he has not shown that the waiver is otherwise unenforceable,” the court said. Shroyer can keep appealing. He previously received a prison sentence of 60 days after admitting to certain criminal allegations.
Legal journalist Kyle Cheney said that Shroyer had been characterizing his continued appeals as a push for free speech, though like the argument goes with Trump, Shroyer wasn’t penalized simply for objectionable commentary. The criminal allegations covered specific acts of joining the chaos in D.C.
Elsewhere in Capitol riot cases, a different defendant convicted of joining January 6 was recently ordered by a judge in tandem with jail time to pay over $30,000 to help cover medical costs incurred by an officer with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, as previously reported on this website. Defendant Clayton Ray Mullins dragged an officer with that police department by their leg as they struggled on the ground, and Mullins was also given tens of thousands of dollars in additional penalties.
Another defendant, Ralph Celentano, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison after a conviction on criminal allegations of assaulting police. One of the officers who Celentano targeted during the riot was Kenrick Ellis of the U.S. Capitol Police. Celentano ran up behind Ellis and shoved the officer over a ledge into a crowd below including fellow officers and additional rioters, and Ellis actually spoke directly to Celentano during the rioter’s recent sentencing proceedings, deeming the defendant a “coward.” Ellis has a young son, and he also spoke about fearing the violence at the Capitol would mean his end, leaving the child behind.
