A man from Colorado wiped his social media posts, soaked his cell phone in water, and microwaved his laptop to get rid of proof of what he did during the uprising on January 6th. He was given more than five years in federal prison last week.
Jeffrey Sabol, 53, of Kittredge, was given a 63-month jail sentence. He was also told to repay more than $32,000 and go on supervised probation for three years after he gets out of jail.
In August of last year, Sabol was found guilty of three crimes by a judge in Washington, D.C. Sabol was found guilty of a number of crimes, including robbery, assault, and blocking police officers with a dangerous tool.
Reports and documents from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in D.C. say that Sabol drove to the “Stop The Steal” event in the nation’s capital with a group of friends who called themselves a “neighborhood watch” group. For the trip, Sabol brought a hat, a first aid kit, a buck knife, and zip ties. The group used Sabol’s radio to talk to each other.
His lawyers showed several pictures of a man in a brown Carhart jacket and a green backpack fighting with Metropolitan Police Department officers at the Capitol that day during his trial. Someone fought that person off of a cop who was lying on his back with a baton.
“Sabol used such force…that the officer’s torso was lifted off the ground, and Sabol himself fell backward down the steps of the Lower West Terrace,” in the news release.
A court record says that the officer, whose name was only given as “A.W.,” had a cut on his head that needed to be stitched up.
A different picture showed the person in the Carhart jacket helping to drag another police officer down the steps and into the protests. The officer was hit with a flagpole and Officer A.W.’s club there. The officer’s wounds were not very bad.
The case file said, “Sabol admitted that the video seemed to show him punching the police officer, but he says he was just ‘patting him on the back’ and saying ‘we got you, man.'” When they got to the bottom of the stairs, Sabol says he “covered the police officer for his own safety” while other people hit the officer with sticks.
Sabol told the police that it was actually him in the pictures.
Sabol not only tried to destroy proof, but he also bought a plane ticket to Switzerland. Authorities say he wasn’t able to get on the flight, so he rented a car and drove from Colorado to New York. On January 11, 2021, less than a week after the event in the capital, FBI officials caught him in Westchester, New York.
The arrest statement for Sabol says that he was covered in blood from cuts on his arms and thighs. Police say Sabol told them a few things before he was arrested, including “My wounds are self-inflicted,” “I was fighting tyranny in the DC Capital,” and “I am wanted by the FBI.”
Based on the charges against him, Sabol was facing between 97 and 121 months in jail, according to the guidelines for sentencing. The lawyer for his defense asked the judge to give him a 42-month sentence. That lawyer said Sabol got scared when he saw his picture on a TV news show about the event on January 6 and that at least some of his injuries when he was arrested were from an attempt to kill himself.
