Federal prosecutors want longer sentence for Rochester 'Proud Boy' Dominic Pezzola

Gary Craig, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
·1 min read
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Federal prosecutors want more time for Rochester "Proud Boy" Dominic Pezzola, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his window-smashing role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol.

Prosecutors this week filed a notice that they plan to appeal Pezzola's sentence. After being sentenced, Pezzola continued with the lie at the core of the insurrection, shouting "Trump won" as he was escorted from court.

Only minutes before he had "sobbed" and asked the federal judge "for leniency," according to The Hill's reporting of the Sept. 1 sentencing.

As the Associated Press reported, prosecutors maintained that Pezzola "took a police officer's riot shield and used it to smash the window, allow rioters to make the first breach into the Capitol, and he later filmed a 'celebratory video' with a cigar inside the building."

The jury acquitted Pezzola of the most serious charge, seditious conspiracy.

Dominic Pezzola uses a police riot shield to break open a window at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to federal court documents.
Dominic Pezzola uses a police riot shield to break open a window at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to federal court documents.

The jury did convict Pezzola of multiple felonies arising from the attempts to disrupt the electoral count to declare Joseph Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Pezzola plans to appeal the convictions.

Dominic Pezzola took a video of himself inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and posted it to social media, according to court filings.
Dominic Pezzola took a video of himself inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and posted it to social media, according to court filings.

A graduate of Aquinas Institute of Rochester, Pezzola served in the Marines from 1998 to 2005 and was an infantry assaultman.

When arrested he owned a flooring company. Some former friends said he had become racist and extremist on social media postings in the months before the insurrection.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Feds want longer sentence for 'Proud Boy' Dominic Pezzola