Ralph Joseph Celentano III, 56, of Broad Channel, Queens, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison on Tuesday, according to court records. Celentano was charged following his tackling of a police officer and pushing him off of a ledge during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
A jury convicted him last June on two felony counts: assaulting, resisting, or impeding an officer, and interference with officers during a civil disorder- along with several other misdemeanor charges.
Celentano is one of 1,265 people thus far to be charged in relation to the Jan. 6 riot, as reported by the Justice Department. He and many other supporters of former President Donald J. Trump stormed the Capitol to protest against Joe Biden’s win of the 2020 election. A federal investigation into the day’s events is still ongoing- including one into Trump himself for inciting the riots, as he faces federal conspiracy and other charges to which he has pleaded not guilty.
According to the court filings, Celentano made his way to the Capitol after attending a Trump rally and was recorded saying “Someone’s got to do something!”
“What do you think we should do?” Someone off-camera asked.
“Occupy the Capitol,” Celentano reportedly replied. “It’s our building.”
He and other rioters then went on to link arms and march straight at police officers who were guarding the building, and fought with several officers, chasing them down and shoving one of them, as stated by the court filings.
They also read that he tackled a Capitol police officer from behind, lifted the officer off his feet and flipped him over a five-foot-high ledge.
After assaulting the officer while still on the Capitol grounds, Celentano filmed himself celebrating the mob’s aggression, and in the days that followed, he reportedly wrote in text messages and social media posts that it was a day he would always remember and would do all over again.
In a court filing submitted before his sentencing, Celentano’s lawyers said he had grown up as a churchgoing boy scout who went on to a 3-year career as a union carpenter, before he was forced to stop working due to the on-the-job inquiries. He then spent much of his free time surfing and skateboarding before being charged in the Capitol attack, they wrote.
The lawyers also claimed that Celentano came to Washington on the day of the riot to attend a rally for Trump and did not have violence in mind. “He is a man who deeply believed the election was stolen, who was disaffected by his government and who received his news that fed him misinformation,” they stated.
In a news release published by the Justice Department, Judge Timothy J. Kelly of Federal District Court in Washington called Celentano’s actions during the riots “disgraceful” and his assault on the officer “a truly cowardly and despicable thing to do.”
The federal public defender representing Celentano has not yet publicly commented on the outcome of the case.
