By admin WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Long Island funeral home owner pleaded guilty Thursday to spraying police officers with wasp killer and assaulting two journalists, including an Associated Press photographer, during a mob riot at the Capitol nearly four years ago.
Peter Moloney, 60, of Bayport, New York, will be sentenced on February 11 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols. Moloney answered routine questions from the judge as he pleaded guilty to two counts of assault stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the Capitol.
Defense attorney Edward Heilig said his client takes “full responsibility” for his behavior on Jan. 6.
“I deeply regret my actions that day,” Heilig said after the hearing.
Moloney, who co-owns Moloney Family Funeral Homes, was arrested in June 2023. Moloney has since left the family business and transferred his shares of the company to his brother.
An FBI agent’s affidavit said Moloney arrived at the Capitol “prepared for violence” and equipped with safety glasses, a helmet and a can of insecticide. The recording shows him spraying insecticide on the officers, the agent wrote.
The video also captured Peter Moloney participating in an attack on an AP photographer who was documenting the riot at the Capitol. The statement said Moloney grabbed the AP photographer’s camera and pulled, causing the photographer to stumble down the stairs. Moloney was then seen “punching and shoving” the photographer before other rioters pushed the photographer through a wall, the agent wrote.
According to a court filing included in Moloney’s plea agreement, Moloney also approached another journalist, grabbed his camera and pulled him, causing the journalist to stumble down a flight of stairs and damage the camera.
Moloney pleaded guilty to a charge of assault, punishable by a maximum of eight years in prison, for spraying four Metropolitan Police Department officers with wasp killer. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in prison for assaulting a journalist who damaged his camera. He also admitted attacking an AP photographer.
Moloney’s brother, Dan Moloney, said in a statement released after his brother’s arrest that “the alleged activities undertaken by the individual in his free time do not in any way reflect the core values” of the family funeral home business, “which is dedicated to earning money and maintaining the trust and confidence of all members of the community.” of every race, religion and nationality.”
More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes related to January 6. More than 950 of them pleaded guilty. More than 200 others were convicted by judges or juries after trials.
Also Thursday, a Wisconsin man pleaded guilty to defying a court order to report to prison to serve a three-month sentence for joining the Capitol riot. Instead, Paul Kovacik fled to Ireland and sought asylum, authorities said.
Kovacik was arrested in June after he voluntarily returned to the US from Ireland. He will remain in custody pending his sentencing hearing, which U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton has scheduled for Dec. 10. His conviction on the new misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison.
According to a statement from a deputy U.S. Marshals Service, Kovacik told authorities he withdrew his asylum application and returned to the U.S. because he was homesick. Kovacik called himself a “political prisoner” when investigators questioned him after arriving in Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport, according to the deputy’s statement.
On Thursday, Kovacik said he fled because he was afraid of going to prison.
“I never should have run away,” he told the judge. “It was very stupid of me.”
While walking through the Capitol on January 6, Kovacik shot videos of the damage suffered by rioters. He later uploaded the material to his YouTube channel, with titles such as “Treason to the United States Will Be Committed Soon,” prosecutors say.