Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence Capitol riot defendant Christopher Quaglin to 14 years in prison after a conviction at a bench trial on criminal charges including 12 felony offenses. The presiding judge rather than a jury decides the outcome at a bench trial, which for Quaglin took place in July of last year.
“As this Court knows from presiding over a stipulated trial in this case and from presiding over dozens of other January 6 cases, defendant Christopher Joseph Quaglin was among the most violent of the January 6 rioters. He viciously assaulted numerous officers,” federal prosecutors wrote to the judge in their sentencing memo. Judge Trevor McFadden is handling Quaglin’s case.
As could be expected considering the seriousness of the case against him, Quaglin joined violence at the Capitol on and around the building’s Lower West Terrace. A tunnel there hosted some of the most serious violence perpetrated that day by participants in the pro-Trump mobs against police officers.
In the tunnel, Quaglin used a riot shield originating that day with law enforcement themselves and a chemical irritant against police blocking the building. One activation by Quaglin of the spray sent the irritant directly into the uncovered face of an officer participating in the Capitol’s defense, authorities said.
“Quaglin is later seen at the front of the line pushing up against the same MPD Officer he sprayed with the chemical irritant as the crowd yells “heave ho” and puts their collective mass behind Quaglin and others,” the feds added in a prior press release. Similar pushes left D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges crushed between a shield and a door frame, as documented in widely circulated footage. Hodges has been outspoken about his experiences.
As for Quaglin, his reported assaults on police actually included even more, including a confrontation before the defendant entered that tunnel in which he targeted an officer’s neck. “Quaglin can be seen grabbing and pushing the officer by the neck before working with other rioters to rip one of the barrier fences out of the hands of MPD officers,” authorities said in that earlier release.
