Man’s 63-month prison term matches longest in Capitol insurrection

LA Times ^ | July 26, 2022 | Michael Kunzelman

[Coronal]

A man who attacked police officers with poles during the riot at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to more than five years in prison, matching the longest term of imprisonment so far among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions.

Mark Ponder, a 56-year-old resident of Washington, D.C., said he “got caught up” in the chaos that erupted on Jan. 6, 2021, and “didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

“I wasn’t thinking that day,” Ponder told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, asking her for mercy before she sentenced him to five years and three months in prison.

That was three months longer than the prison sentence requested by prosecutors. And it’s the same sentence that Chutkan gave Robert Palmer, a Florida man who also pleaded guilty to assaulting police at the Capitol.

Chutkan said Ponder was “leading the charge” against police officers trying to hold off the mob that disrupted Congress from certifying President Biden’s electoral victory.

“This is not ‘caught up,’ Mr. Ponder,” she said. “He was intent on attacking and injuring police officers. This was not a protest.”

Chutkan has consistently taken a hard line in punishing Capitol rioters. She has handed down terms of imprisonment to all 13 riot defendants who have come before her, matching or exceeding the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation in every case, according to an Associated Press review of court records.

Prosecutors had recommended a five-year prison sentence for Ponder, who has been jailed since his arrest in March 2021.

In April, Ponder pleaded guilty to an assault charge punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Federal sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of nearly five years to just under six years, but Chutkan wasn’t bound by those recommendations.

[BenLurkin]

Obscene.

Did they ever catch the person who torched the DC church in 2016? Is tht person still in prison?

[TornadoAlley3]

Alec Baldwin still free.

[eyeamok]

Did they ever catch the person who torched the DC church in 2016? Is that person still in prison?

Merrick Garland is now the Attorney General!!

[JoSixChip]

asking her for mercy before she sentenced him

Poor bastard, he doesn't understand that he is being used as an example to any who would appose this illegitimate government.

[HandBasketHell]

And the Republicans in Congress have NOTHING to say.

Ditto for Trump. Very disappointed in the way these people have been utterly forgotten.

[ohioman]

Trump said he would pardon these people.

[madison10]

Kinda tough to pardon them if they slap him in prison. They WILL try.

[Coronal]

Most of his pardons were for people with money and/or connections.

[lightman]

Any credit for “time served”?

[rktman]

Colbert’s folks? Dismissed.

[caww]

Judge Chutkan ........

[caww]

Mark Ponder

[caww]

Well Ponder was clearly taking on this officer....

[DouglasKC]

There were blm protestors attacking federal officers nightly across the nation much worse than this.

[caww]

After Ponder broke his metal pole on the previous photo - he got another one and went after another officer....

[caww]

From what I can tell his sentenc was for assulting police officers - and he does have a criminal history for bank robbery and othrs.

[piasa]

Anyone ever research the background of these two guys and find their connections Make sure they weren’t from Sullivan’s group, Insurgence USA or some such? We’re they at the Wash monument or did they begin their day right at the capitol?

[piasa]

Wait a minute, I thought Trump supporters were white supremacists. You sure he isn’t a cracker in blackface?

[piasa]

He had time to take his coat off?