WASHINGTON — A federal judge sentenced a New York man to a little more than four years in prison Friday for robbing DC Police Officer Mike Fanone of his badge and radio while he was being assaulted by other rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.
Thomas Sibick, 37, of Buffalo, pleaded guilty in March to one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding a police officer and two counts of robbery. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Amy B. Jackson calculated he faced an advisory sentencing guideline of 33-41 months in prison, but ultimately varied upward from her own calculation to 50 months. Sibick will also have to serve three years on supervised release and pay $7,500.79 in restitution for damage done to the U.S. Capitol and replacement of Fanone's radio.
Jackson said Sibick had attempted to trivialize and minimize his conduct since his arrest — noting even in his sentencing memo he'd claimed Fanone had likely not even noticed he was being robbed during the assault.
"That is such a stunning thing to say I don't even know how to describe it," Jackson said.
The judge also said Sibick had shown "a little bit of entitlement" with repeated requests to modify his home confinement — including one she granted to allow him to use dating apps — and that she couldn't put as much emphasis on the hardships he'd faced as a result of his arrest as he'd like.
"You and your family have repeated over and over again how difficult this has been for you," Jackson said. "But I cannot treat this as the biggest calamity in your life without considering the other life that has been ruined."
In a sentencing memo asking for roughly six years in prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall described Sibick’s behavior on Jan. 6 as “unquestionably cruel.” After Fanone was grabbed and dragged out of the Lower West Terrace Tunnel – and while other rioters were restraining him, beating him and pressing a stun gun into his neck – Sibick reached in and robbed him of his badge and radio. Paschall said Sibick later falsely told the FBI he’d tried to use the radio to call for other officers to help Fanone. Fanone lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack as a result of the assault and had since left the force.
Prior to the assault on Fanone, Sibick had posed for a picture with a police riot shield dropped by an officer and had made his way to the front lines of a mob that was trying to push past police in the tunnel. While on the west side of the Capitol, he recorded himself on video narrating his efforts to push forward.
“Just got tear-gassed, but we’re going, baby, we’re going! We’re pushing forward now!” he said at one point.
After Jan. 6, Sibick gave the FBI multiple versions of events – claiming at first he had only watched the assault on Fanone from a distance. Sibick also claimed he had thrown Fanone’s badge and radio into a dumpster at a hotel, but later admitted he had buried the badge in his backyard. Investigators eventually recovered the badge, although the radio has never been found.
The government’s sentencing request was in line with what Jackson had given other rioters involved in the assault on Fanone. In October, she sentenced Albuquerque Cosper Head, a Tennessee construction worker who grabbed Fanone and dragged him out of the tunnel, to seven-and-a-half years in prison. Kyle Young, an Iowa man who helped restrain Fanone, was sentenced to seven years in prison a month earlier. Last month, Jackson sentenced Daniel Rodriguez – the California man who repeatedly pressed a stun gun into the base of Fanone’s neck – to 12.5 years in prison. As he was led out of the courtroom following his sentencing, Rodriguez yelled emphatically, “Trump won!”
Sibick’s attorney, Stephen Brennwald, took pains to try to distance his client from other rioters – particularly Rodriguez, who he claimed in his own memo had already assaulted Fanone before Sibick took his badge and radio. Brennwald won Sibick’s release from the D.C. Jail in October 2021 after claiming he’d voluntarily asked for solitary confinement in order to get away from what he described as the “toxic” and radicalizing presence of other Jan. 6 defendants.
Brennwald also said on Jan. 6 Sibick had been improperly prescribed Adderall, which can cause mania in individuals like Sibick who have bipolar disorder. He argued in his memo a period of home confinement to be followed by supervised release – accounting for the eights months Sibick already served in pretrial detention – would be adequate for his offense. Brennwald also said Sibick’s conduct was much less violent than the other defendants who attacked Fanone.
“These individuals, as the Statement of Offense references, ‘tased, kicked, punched, pushed, grabbed, and hit [the officer] with objects…’” Brennwald wrote. “As a result, and quite fairly, they received lengthy prison sentences. Mr. Sibick did none of those things.”
Jackson allowed Sibick to self-report and agreed to recommend he be placed at FCI McKean in Pennsylvania to be near his family.