Assault On Cop During Jan. 6 Riot Lands Montco Man In Federal Prison

KING OF PRUSSIA, PA — A Montgomery County man will be heading to federal prison for close to four years after he was sentenced in a D.C. courtroom in connection with an assault on a Metro Police officer during the Jan. 6 riots on the U.S. Capitol.

Howard C. Richardson, 72, of King of Prussia, received a 46-month prison sentence in Washington, D.C. on Friday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

Richardson had pleaded guilty back in late April to assaulting, resisting and impeding officers.

Patch previously reported on the criminal case against Richardson.

Federal prosecutors said that Richardson had made his way to a restricted area of the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, passed by metal barriers, and tried to avoid police officers while simultaneously carrying a flagpole that he initially waived among the crowd, but eventually used to beat officers.

Richardson, at one point, forcefully swung the flagpole down and struck a Metropolitan Police Department officer who was standing behind a metal barricade.

The force was enough to break the flagpole.

Moments later, Richardson joined a crowd of other rioters in pushing a large metal sign into a line of police officers, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Federal agents arrested Richardson in Philadelphia late last year and he pled guilty five months after he was taken into custody.

After his release from prison, Richardson will be placed on three years of supervised release, prosecutors stated. A judge also ordered him to pay a $2,000 fine.

Richardson joins the more than 860 people who have been arrested across the country for crimes relating to the breach on the U.S. Capitol.

That figure, according to federal prosecutors, includes more than 260 defendants who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement in some way.