Credit: (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Scott Kevin Fairlamb, the North Jersey gym owner, bar bouncer and former MMA fighter, holds the distinction of being the first defendant to plead guilty to assaulting a U.S. Capitol Police officer during the Jan. 6 insurrection. He is now serving 41 months in prison, the second-longest sentence imposed thus far for taking part in the attack.

Fairlamb was caught on video punching and kicking a police officer, according to the FBI. Failamb also posted a video on Facebook from that day, declaring,

“What do Patriots do? We f—ing disarm them and then we storm the f—ing Capitol.”

Fairlamb is among 25 New Jersey residents who have been charged in the 2021 insurrection. Thus far, more than 700 suspects have been charged — a third of them with attacking or interfering with police. Another 275 have been charged with the most serious crime of obstructing Congress’s constitutional duty to certify the 2020 presidential election.

A little more than 160 of those charged have pled guilty at this point. Less than half of them have been sentenced. That includes Rasha Abuyal-Ragheb, the Fairfield woman who was sentenced in November to 36 months probation with two months home confinement. She also posted on Facebook that day: “I was part of the history. We the people won’t take it anymore …”

The earliest Capitol riot trials are scheduled to begin next month.

One of the New Jersey suspects awaiting trial is Timothy Lois Hale-Cusanelli, one of at least six members of the U.S. military to have been charged. The now former Army reservist and Navy contractor from Colts Neck, who before his arrest sported a “Hitler moustache,” is described by federal prosecutors as an “avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.” He was demoted and discharged from the military last year after being indicted for his role in the Jan. 6 riot.

Hale-Cusanelli confessed to FBI special agents that he “intended to interfere with the certification of the Electoral College vote and that he had done so,” after his arrest last year, according to court filings.

Since NJ Spotlight News reported in March that 15 state residents had been charged in the Capitol riot, another 10 have been added to that list.

They include Christopher Quaglin of New Brunswick who remains in custody after being arrested and charged in Aprilwith assaulting officers, civil disorder and obstructing an official proceeding. In one court filing, federal prosecutors say Quaglin is a self-proclaimed member of the Proud Boys, an extremist group that federal authorities believe played a key role in the Capitol siege.

Shawn Price, another defendant from Rockaway Township, also claims to be a member of the Proud Boys. Arrested in June, his charges include obstruction of an official proceeding.

In a court filing, authorities allege “Price potentially (has) a leadership position within a New Jersey chapter of the Proud Boys organization and (has) participated in events as a Proud Boy member in Washington D.C. in November and December of 2020.”

According to the filing, Price sent a Facebook message in the evening of Jan. 6. “…I got really f—-d up but me and 4 of my chapter brothers pushed that line and started it ourselves…”

As for Quaglin, he meticulously planned his visit to Washington, was recruiting others to join him and booked six hotel rooms, according to court filings. He posted online he was going to “war” and was writing a letter to his wife in case he did not make it home.

“What is extremely troubling about the defendant’s role in this attack is the planning and group coordination involved, the way he armed himself in advance, the repeated nature of his attacks, the length of time he was engaged in fighting law enforcement, and the escalation of his violent assaults,” one prosecutor wrote.

That escalation of violence was laid out in an extraordinary FBI affidavit filed in the case, a long narrative pieced together from many video sources, social media postings, search warrants and interviews with confidential sources. The sworn statement paints a detailed 102-minute account of Quaglin’s actions, both inside and out of the Capitol. The document is lengthy yet FBI terse. The videos cited in the affidavit show Quaglin “wearing a red, white, and blue shirt, a black helmet with a camera affixed to the front of it, and a gas mask …  repeatedly assaulting multiple law enforcement officers guarding the Capitol.”

Read in its entirety, the document shocks the senses even today, after all the videos and news reports that have flooded the media.

Here are some excepts:

• “Quaglin approaches the police line separated by the fence and starts engaging with the MPD Officers at the line. Seemingly unprovoked, Quaglin shouts the following statements towards the MPD Officers: ‘You don’t want this fight. You do not want this f—-ing fight. You are on the wrong f—ing side. You’re going to bring a f—ing pistol, I’m going to bring a f—-ing cannon.’”
• “… Quaglin walks through the crowd and approaches the USCP Officers located at the police line (and) then begins to verbally engage a USCP Officer. Quaglin continues to get closer to the USCP Officer while appearing increasingly agitated and pointing his finger towards USCP Officer.”
• “… an unidentified rioter pushes down a USCP officer. Another officer steps in front of the fallen officer. Quaglin can then be seen lunging forward and pushing that officer down. Multiple officers then drop their shields as they begin to retreat backwards. Quaglin and other unidentified individuals can then be seen picking up the shields and passing them backwards …”
• “At approximately 3:03 p.m., Quaglin can first be seen … entering the tunnel with the rioters … (He) continues to try to push past the law enforcement officers guarding the Lower West Terrace Exterior Doors … during which he can be seen on video attacking officers with a stolen riot shield and spraying them with a chemical irritant …”
• “Around … 3:06 p.m., Quaglin sprays a chemical irritant at MPD and USCP officers trying to stop the rioters … then again sprays a chemical irritant directly into the face of an MPD Officer, who does not have a face shield or gas mask protecting him …

Rioters are heard instructing the front line of rioters to make a “shield wall” to prevent law enforcement from controlling rioters with oleoresin capsicum spray (“OC spray”). Multiple rioters then use the stolen shields to push against the line of officers as additional rioters add their weight and push too. Quagin then continues pushing as the entire group of rioters yell “heave ho” and put their collective mass behind him and the others at the front of the line.

“In another video taken in his hotel room, (Quaglin) appears shirtless with a large tattoo visible on his chest and on his arm as he narrates while cooking a steak in his shower … ‘It’s the first step … I’m exhausted, I’ve been pepper sprayed like twenty f—ing times, I’m sure I’m going to make the news.”

The next day, Quaglin sent a Facebook message to an unnamed person:

“It was wild. A guy died in my arms.”