A Knoxville man, identified as Michael Tyler Roberts, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in the January 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, where he was charged with assaulting law enforcement officers. As reported by WBIR, Roberts will face 36 months of supervised release and must pay a restitution of $2,000.

In court documents, it was revealed that Roberts forcibly assaulted a line of police officers at the Lower West Terrace Tunnel of the Capitol grounds by grappling with them and grabbing at their hands and arms for about three minutes. The assault was part of a wider disturbance that disrupted a joint session of Congress meant to count the electoral votes of the 2020 presidential election. Roberts initially pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers earlier this year. That plea resulted in the sentence handed down, detailed by WATE.

Roberts's conviction did not stand alone. The Department of Justice has conveyed that, over 47 months following January 6, 2021, more than 1,500 individuals have been charged across nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, charges that included over 590 individuals accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement, per information from the Department of Justice released by WATE.

Before his arrest on November 1, 2023, Roberts was identified as a Knoxville, Kingston, or Paint Rock resident. He had exchanged text messages with another man, Ronald Colton McAbee, about their travel plans to Washington, D.C., for the protest. He even discussed bringing brass knuckles, an illicit item that McAbee himself was later charged with possessing. The plan to bring brass knuckles for an event billed as a protest bears witness to a forethought of confrontation.