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A Jeffersonville man faces more than five years in prison after he was sentenced in federal court Tuesday for his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Curtis Tate, 32, was sentenced to 63 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $3,176 by U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper.
Tate pleaded guilty March 7 to a felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.
The U.S. Department of Justice issued a release Tuesday on Tate’s sentencing.
According to court documents, Tate attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, in protest of Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote.
Tate wore a black jacket, green tactical vest, green pants and a black knit cap, and he carried a metal baton that he had brought with him to D.C. After the rally, Tate marched with a crowd toward the U.S. Capitol grounds.
At approximately 2:05 p.m., Tate arrived on the restricted grounds surrounding the U.S. Capitol building near the Lower West Terrace. Here, Tate urged others to move forward, yelling, “Keep going!”
He also posted a video on his Instagram social media account depicting the Lower West Terrace and Inauguration scaffolding with a caption reading, “Before the first breach.”
Court documents stated that later in the afternoon, Tate repeatedly struck a United States Capitol Police officer in the helmet with the metal baton.
In response, another USCP officer sprayed Tate with pepper spray, causing him to retreat.
Tate struck at least two officers with the baton, hitting one in the hand and the other repeatedly on the helmet.
He also threw a broken table leg, a floor lamp, a speaker box and a shoe at officers guarding a tunnel entrance on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. He struck a third officer’s arm and damaged a window when he threw the speaker box.
Tate pleaded guilty to three felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding police using a deadly or dangerous weapon, court records show.
The FBI arrested Tate on Aug. 24, 2023, in Wilmington, North Carolina.
In March 2023, USA Today interviewed Tate for a story about Capitol rioters who had been identified by online sleuths but not yet arrested. Tate acknowledged that he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but he denied assaulting anyone.
“I would never hurt an officer. I come from a military background, I’m very respectful of our military and police,” he told the newspaper.
According to the DOJ, in the 42 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,470 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 530 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony.
In May, the DOJ released legal statistics related to the riot and arrests made as a result of the incident, reporting that:
- Approximately 510 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including approximately 133 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
- Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted on Jan. 6 at the Capitol, including about 80 from the U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department.
- Approximately 11 individuals have been arrested on a series of charges that relate to assaulting a member of the media, or destroying their equipment, on Jan. 6.
- Approximately 1,334 defendants have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds. Of those, 127 defendants have been charged with entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section prosecuted Tate’s case, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana and Eastern District of North Carolina assisting with the prosecution.
The FBI’s Indianapolis and Washington Field Offices investigated this case.
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