Ohio Man Who Raped Deaf Girl Arrested for Assaulting Police on January 6th

     At the sentencing of two Oath Keepers last week, Judge Amit Mehta criticized the lack of media coverage of the hearing as well as a public ignorance to the events of January 6th. There are many narratives about January 6th that need to be actively fought. One of these narratives is that the people at the Capitol were ordinary Americans who got caught up in the moment because of Trump. While that may be true for some, and Trump certainly bears criminal culpability for what happened that day, I referred to the mob in the days after the insurrection as a "sea of degenerates." More and more, this is being proven true.

     Just last week, David Paul Daniel of Mint Hill, North Carolina, was charged federally for sexually abusing two girls and documenting the abuse before posting depictions online. He joins the long list of January 6th defendants with criminal histories. For child sex crimes alone, the list is extensive: a Citrus Heights man was also indicted for receiving child sexual abuse material last year. A Kentucky man who is serving two years in prison for the same crime has yet to be arrested for spraying law enforcement with a chemical irritant on January 6th.

     Jeffrey Newcomb of Ohio is the latest arrest of a sex predator for assaulting law enforcement on January 6th, and his may be the most disturbing crime I've encountered so far. In 2003, when he was 20, Newcomb was charged with kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old deaf girl. The Buckeye State let him plead guilty to a (relatively) minor sexual battery crime; the court determined that he was not a sexual predator. That decision proved to be wrong, as, in 2012, he was convicted of attempted rape.  He was then required to register as a tier III sex offender. This is the highest risk designation of sex offender in many states, and it means he has to register every 90 days for the rest of his life.

     In 2021, Newcomb decided another nine years meant another serious felony needed to be committed, although sex crimes are evidently so 2012. On January 6th, dozens of men used a 130 square foot "TRUMP" billboard with metal casters and wheels the size of a human head to assault a line of police, pushing it into officers and allowing the mob to rush further into restricted grounds. The man who built the sign for $700, the man who brough it to the Capitol, and the man who led the push? Jeffrey Newcomb was arrested last week on charges of assaulting law enforcement and civil disorder. He faces up to eight years in prison if convicted.

     Newcomb is not the only man charged in what is referred to as the "Sedition Billboard" case. Another Ohio man, pro-Trump live-streamer David Valentine, was arrested in August. Jonathan Copeland, also of Ohio, was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for his use of the billboard, and he faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced at the end of the year. Joseph Lino Padilla of Tennessee was acquitted of using the billboard to assault police but convicted of other assault charges and is serving 78 months in federal prison. Two Florida men have been identified as participating in the assault but have yet to be arrested, while authorities continue to search for a dozen men involved in the Sedition Billboard case.

     Jeffrey Newcomb is a disturbing reminder of the reality of January 6th: a group of America's worst scum came together on behalf of the worst president in American history to commit the largest assault on law enforcement in American history. Jeffrey Newcomb deserves to spend a full eight years in prison, and Donald Trump, the man who led the attack, cannot be given power ever again.