Background: Curtis Logan Tate, circled in yellow, attacks a police officer with a metal baton (red), as pepper spray (orange circle) is deployed. Police identified Tate, in part, by his tattoo (blue circle). Inset: Tate’s Instagram post on Jan. 6, 2021, with metal baton (circled in red). Photos provided by U.S. Justice Department.
A “one-man wrecking crew” from Indiana who assaulted police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 with a metal baton, threw a speaker box at another officer and helped pass along makeshift weapons to other rioters including a broken table leg, floor lamp and a long piece of lumber, was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday.
Curtis Logan Tate, 33, of Jeffersonville, was arrested in August 2023 and charged with assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon, civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, destruction of government property, disorderly conduct and engaging in an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds.
Facing eight counts, Tate struck a deal with federal prosecutors in March and pleaded guilty to the assault charge.
A sentencing memorandum filed on July 2 shows prosecutors sought a sentence of six years and six months.
In their request for that sentence to U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, prosecutors dubbed Tate a “one-man wrecking crew on Jan. 6” who stormed police at the Capitol’s West Plaza, assaulted officers with a metal baton, including striking one officer in the hand and then another on his helmeted head. He joined some of the very first rioters to enter the tunnel in the chaotic and overwhelmed Lower West Terrace as well.
Tate passed a riot shield stolen from police to fellow rioters, posted videos on Instagram hailing his efforts as he jeered at those certifying the 2020 election — “F— ALL THESE GOVERMENT OFFICIALS,” he wrote in one post on Instagram — and muscled his way through the mob to assault police despite their efforts to keep him and others at back with pepper spray.
Tate was deluged with spray and he only retreated briefly before then seeking out another weak spot in police defense lines.
Court records show that Tate “threw a black speaker box at a window on the Capitol building” at one point, causing a huge crack to open up.
He picked up either the same speaker box or another and threw it as well, this time hitting an officer in his arm, according to prosecutors. He also threw a shoe at police and then proceeded to assist other rioters by “passing objects through a broken window.”
Those objects would quickly be used as improvised weapons to assault police.
Prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum that his assault continued after he threw a broken table leg and broken floor lamp into the tunnel:
[D]uring the rioters’ final attempt to breach the Capitol building at the tunnel, Tate charged the entrance brandishing a nightstick that had been taken from police officers.
Tate fought against the police officers for over three hours on the West Front, taking part in some of the worst fighting of Jan. 6 — where the violence was so intense that it was later described as a ‘medieval battle’ scene.
Video footage from the day, including clips that Tate posted online, showed him urging others to move forward and to “keep going!”
One video he shared on Instagram featured him at the Lower West Terrace and near scaffolding erected for President Joe Biden’s inauguration around 2:05 p.m.
“Before the first breach,” he wrote in the post that featured himself prominently.
After he was sprayed with pepper spray, he posted another video: “Post 1ST MACING,” he said.
Waving the metal baton he brought to Washington, D.C., from Jeffersonville to assault police, he cried out in the clips: “We’re tearing this motherf—– down!”
He posted yet another video of himself on Instagram when he was sprayed with irritants a second time.
Though he is from Indiana, Tate was arrested in Wilmington, North Carolina, where, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by attorney, he was receiving drug treatment at The Healing Place.
Seeking leniency, the defense attorney described Tate’s family history, including difficulties he had with his mother and times when he got in trouble for acting out in school. He also struggled with addiction to alcohol and cocaine and had attempted suicide as recently as January 2023, his sentencing memorandum states.
Since Jan. 6 and since he’s been in treatment for his addiction, Tate’s attorney says he has expressed deep shame in his actions and that he has mentioned how he “let other people’s rhetoric cloud his mind and misguide his judgment.”
In hindsight, Tate has expressed remorse about coming to Washington, D.C., his lawyer wrote, adding that since Tate has been detained at the jail in the capital he has led Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and organizes group workouts.
In addition to his sentence, Tate will be on supervised release for 36 months and has been ordered to pay $3,176 in restitution.
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