A New Jersey man, Gregory C. Yetman, was sentenced to 30 months in prison today for assaulting law enforcement during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. The 47-year-old from Helmetta pleaded guilty to charges including a felony offense of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court also ordered Yetman to 18 months of supervised release following his incarceration and to make restitution of $2,000, according to a Department of Justice report.
Yetman, who is also an enlisted military police officer with the U.S. Army National Guard, attended the Trump rally at the Ellipse before heading to the U.S. Capitol, where he was found to have actively participated in the violence. He was recorded on a surveillance camera picking up and subsequently using an MK-46H canister to spray OC, a deterrent capable of causing serious injury, against a group of police officers who were desperately attempting to keep the mob at bay. Following the assault, Yetman then attempted to further document the event by taking photos and videos with his cell phone.
Federal agents tried to apprehend Yetman on November 8, 2023, but he initially fled into the woods, dropping a knife and a phone in the process. Investigators have since found an array of weapons, including firearms and ammunition, both in his residence and a storage unit. After an extensive several-day manhunt, Yetman turned himself in on November 10, 2023. The Newark and Washington Field Offices of the FBI had previously identified Yetman as BOLO AFO-278 on their seeking information photos, with further assistance coming from the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department.
Yetman's arrest and subsequent sentencing fall into a larger landscape of legal repercussions following the insurrection. Over 1,470 individuals from nearly every state have to date been charged with crimes related to the storm of the Capitol, with more than 530 facing felony charges for assaulting or impeding law enforcement. Yetman’s case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, receiving valuable support from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
