A 20-year NYPD veteran convicted of assaulting police at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot is asking a federal judge to consider his post-traumatic stress disorder from his days working in the Bronx before sentencing, according to court filings submitted by his attorneys Monday.

Prosecutors are seeking the longest sentence for a U.S. Capitol riot participant yet for Thomas Webster, 56, who served in the NYPD for two decades and for four years in the Marine Corps. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia asked the judge for a prison sentence of 210 months, or 17-and-a-half years, in a sentencing memo filed last week.

The current longest sentence handed down is 87 months, according to U.S. Department of Justice record. Webster’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 1. 

In their own sentencing memo, Webster’s attorneys made the case he should be credited for time served and instead be sentenced to supervised release. He came to the nation’s capitol on Jan. 6 because Webster believed President Donald Trump’s false claim the election had been stolen, they wrote.

“Looking back, Mr. Webster and his family know all too well that he was duped and used as a pawn by senior elected officials he trusted,” the attorneys wrote. “As distorted as defendant’s mindset was at the time, his heart was set on doing what he believed was right.”

“He certainly now knows that he was wrong,” they added.

PTSD from patrolling the Bronx

In May, a federal jury rejected a self-defense argument and testimony from Webster that he was protecting himself from Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officer Noah Rathburn.

Body camera footage played in court showed Rathburn hitting Webster with an open hand after the retired cop shoved a bike rack at him, according to the Associated Press. Then, Webster swung a metal flag pole at Rathburn before tackling him and grabbing his gas mask, his attorneys conceded. But they connected his actions to lingering trauma from his days as a housing cop in the Bronx.

A psychiatric report included in the filing detailed a difficult childhood, mental health challenges from being imprisoned after the Capitol riot, and PTSD from his time in the NYPD.

“He particularly remembered two incidents that involved a mother throwing her children from a 15-story building and another incident that involved violent struggle with an armed robber” who tried to grab his gun in a Bronx housing complex stairwell, Webster’s psychologist Dr. Shashla Gorovoy wrote. “Mr. Webster was able to connect the January 6 event to the incident he experienced during the struggle with the robber ‘trying to show the officer my hands so he knows I am not armed, or I won’t go for his gun.’”

“At that moment, I had flashbacks of the struggle we had on the staircase,” Webster told his psychologist.

Webster suffers from insomnia, hypervigilance nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, and intrusive memories, according to Gorovoy.

‘Armed and ready for battle’

In their sentencing memo, federal prosecutors highlighted Webster came to Washington D.C. “armed and ready for battle,” noting he packed his NYPD-issued bulletproof vest and a Smith & Wesson Model 640 revolver — “small enough to conceal inside a jacket pocket.” He wore the vest to the riot, but prosecutors did not say if he carried his gun that day.

Instead, “he carried a large metal flagpole bearing the red and yellow flag of the United States Marine Corps,” they wrote.

Webster should have known better, prosecutors said, citing his tenure working as a police officer. In court, Webster testified he spent “countless hours” behind metal barricades protecting dignitaries in New York City and conceded he knew he would have been seen as a threat by the police defending the Capitol.

Instead of turning around after law enforcement started using flashbangs and tear gas on the crowd gathering on the Capitol grounds, Webster “spent eight minutes elbowing his way through the densely packed crowd so that he could position himself at the front of the mob,” prosecutors said. Just before 2:30 p.m., they wrote, Webster pointed at Rathburn and began cursing and threatening him.

After hitting Rathburn with his flagpole and tackling him to the ground, Webster turned to another person live streaming the events and said “send more patriots. We need some help,” according to court filings. 

While Webster’s attorneys focused on his regrets and shame for his actions, prosecutors insisted in their filing Webster never apologized to Rathburn and attempted to delete photos from his cell phone before turning himself in, weeks after the Capitol riot.

“Webster has shown that he will not accept responsibility for his unlawful conduct, and that he does not believe that he did anything wrong on January 6,” prosecutors wrote. “Clearly, a lengthy term of incarceration is needed to deter him from committing future crimes of violence based on his political grievances.”

Service to his country

His attorneys argued the former NYPD officer served his country and city, was a faithful Catholic, and a family man who deserved credit for his life prior to his “violent role” at the Capitol.

Webster’s “time with the United States Marine Corps and the NYPD over a twenty-five year period was unblemished and filled with superlatives that directly speak with the defendant’s good character, peaceful nature and high moral qualities,” his attorneys wrote, adding he worked at the World Trade Center site after September 11th and “suffers from a variety of health conditions as a consequence.”

His attorneys included positive performance reviews and records of medals he received during his time in the NYPD and Marine Corps. He served in the Marines from 1985 to 1989, when he was honorably discharged at the rank of lance corporal, according to his discharge papers presented to the court. His tenure in the NYPD lasted from 1991 to 2011.

Letters from family, neighbors, childhood friends, retired NYPD officers, an active duty Marine, and Webster’s priest were included in the filing, each testifying to Webster’s character and writing that he did not pose a threat to others. 

“Mr. Webster’s reaction to the officer, which lasted approximately one minute, does not depict the years of respect that he has shown for the members of any police department,” retired NYPD Lieutenant Frank Sialiano wrote. “He always had the utmost respect for all his brother officers, as well as his fellow members of the Armed forces.”