A New York man who stole a police radio and badge from a Washington, D.C., police officer who was being beaten by a mob during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S Capitol was sentenced to over four years in prison Friday, prosecutors said.
Thomas Sibick, 37, of Buffalo, stole the badge and radio of then-Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone, who has been one of several officers attacked that day to testify before Congress.
Sibick was sentenced to 50 months, or four years and two months in prison, and was ordered to pay over $7,500, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington said in a statement. He pleaded guilty in March.
Fanone “fought for his life against members of the violent mob” on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that asked for 71 months in prison. They called the attack on Capitol "an attack on the rule of law.”
“Sibick’s criminal conduct, assaulting a police officer who was in the course of performing his official duties, and stealing his badge and radio — his lifeline in his time of need — is the epitome of disrespect for the law,” the prosecution argued in the sentencing memorandum.
An attorney listed as representing Sibick did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
Sibick's attorney argued in a sentencing memo that Sibick did not punch, kick, or otherwise attack Fanone like other people charged in the assault, and was limited to taking two items off of the officer's vest.
Sibick "has been devastated by his actions that day," and has expressed his remorse, attorney Stephen Brennwald wrote.
Sibick wrote in a letter to the judge that he was in a manic state, and he called his actions an "an embarrassment to myself, my family and my nation."
"If I could tell Officer Fanone how deeply sorry I was for impeding him from doing his job, I would," he wrote.
Sibick pleaded guilty to one felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, which is a felony, and one misdemeanor count of theft on March 3.
His attorney argued for home confinement. Sibick has spent eight months in jail since his arrest.
At least three other men — Daniel Rodriguez, Kyle Young and Albuquerque Head — have also been convicted and sentenced in the attack on Fanone as well as in the Jan. 6 riot.
Rodriguez, who attacked Fanone with the stun gun, was sentenced to 12½ years in prison last month. Young was sentenced in September to over 7 years in prison. Head was sentenced in October to 7½ years.
The attack on the U.S. Capitol occurred as Congress was formally counting the electoral votes affirming Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election, and after repeated lies that baselessly claimed fraud in the election.
Trump is the target of an investigation before a grand jury in Washington over Jan. 6 and efforts to overturn the election.
