A federal judge on imposed the most serious sentence yet in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, ordering Scott Kevin Fairlamb, 44, a former MMA fighter and New Jersey gym owner, to serve almost three-and-a-half years in prison for punching a police officer in the face during the attempted coup d’etat.
Fairlamb pleaded guilty in August to assaulting a police officer and obstructing an official proceeding. He has been in jail since he was arrested in late January and will get credit for the time he has already spent behind bars. Fairlamb was also the first riot defendant to plead guilty to assault.
The defendant is the first to be sentenced of the more than 210 individuals charged in this investigation with the federal offense of assault on a police officer.
According to court documents, Fairlamb, of Stockholm, N.J., traveled to Washington on Jan. 6 to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally. After arriving on Capitol grounds, Fairlamb climbed the scaffolding on the West Terrace, where he recorded and posted a video to Instagram in which he stated, “We ain’t f* leaving either! We ain’t f* leaving!”
According to his plea, Fairlamb followed a large crowd that, moments earlier, had forcibly pushed through a line of police officers and metal barricades. He obtained a collapsible police baton from the ground and posted a video to Facebook displaying the baton.
In the video he said, “What Patriots do? We f* disarm them and then we storm the f* Capitol.” He carried the police baton when he illegally entered the building and walked past broken glass of a shattered window. Once he exited, Fairlamb inserted himself into a line of MPD officers where he, unprovoked, shoved and punched an officer.
Fairlamb pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia on Aug. 6, 2021, to obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. He has been in custody since his arrest on Jan. 22, 2021.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered him to pay $2,000 in restitution. He also must serve a period of three years of supervised release following the completion of his prison term.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department’s National Security Division prosecuted the case, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
The FBI’s Washington and Newark Field Offices investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department.
In the ten months since Jan. 6, more than 675 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 210 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.