A New York massage therapist who was among the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 was sentenced on November 21 to three months in jail, capping off a case that featured skipped court hearings and the defendant insulting a prosecutor and berating the judge, the Associated Press reported.
Frank Rocco Giustino entered a guilty plea in February to a misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, but was arrested in October after he failed to show up for his September sentencing.
In last Tuesday’s rescheduled sentencing hearing, US District Judge James Boasberg said Giustino appeared to have no remorse for his conduct during the Capitol riot and showed no respect for the authority of the court. Boasberg described Giustino’s behavior throughout his case as “about the worst of any January 6th defendant” he had seen.
The chastened Giustino told the judge that he condemned the violence on January 6 and did not mean to be disrespectful to the court, adding that he just wanted to go home.
Boasberg sentenced Giustino to 90 but credited him for the roughly 30 days he was in custody while awaiting sentencing.
After his February guilty plea, prosecutors initially asked for a sentence of only 21 days. However, after Giustino’s behavior at a June 23 hearing where he repeatedly disrupted the proceedings with belligerent outbursts, prosecutors revised their sentencing recommendation to four months.
During the June 23 hearing, Giustino attacked the prosecutor, describing his case as “an absolute clown show of a prosecution.” He declared the court illegitimate and made other references to the illegitimacy of the federal government.
When the judge instructed him to behave in a “civilized fashion” and warned Giustino that he would issue a warrant for his arrest if he failed to show up for sentencing, the massage therapist suggested that he would issue a warrant for the judge’s arrest.
According to Assistant US Attorney Douglas Collyer, Giustino emailed him on September 5 and referred to Collyer’s prosecution as the “very definition of terrorism.” Giustino demanded that his case be dismissed with an apology.
