
A United States Marine Corps veteran from Georgia will spend the next 27 months behind bars for assaulting two law enforcement officers during the January 6, 2021 riot on Capitol Hill.
On Monday, May 2, in Washington, US District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich also sentenced Kevin Douglas Creek, 47, to one year of supervised release after his release from a federal penitentiary. He will also pay $2,000 in restitution to the Capitol’s architect, a small portion of the estimated $2.7 million in damages caused by rioters trying to block the certification of Electoral College votes nominating Joe Biden as the next president. .
Creek, of Alpharetta, Georgia, pleaded guilty Dec. 1, 2021, to assaulting, resisting, or obstructing officers, and admitted he attacked them. According to his plea agreement, he understood he likely faced a 24-30 month prison sentence, not the maximum sentence of eight years in a federal penitentiary, followed by three years of supervised release and a $250 fine. $000.
As part of the agreement, federal prosecutors dropped six other charges, including those of physical violence in a restricted area; obstruction of law enforcement during civil unrest; and disorderly conduct.
Video camera surveillance, particularly from cameras mounted on the body armor of Metropolitan Police and United States Capitol Police officers, allowed FBI agents to easily locate Creek. Footage shows he began punching and kicking cops at 2:28 p.m. on January 6, 2021, near the West Terrace of the United States Capitol.
At the time, Creek owned Nailed It Roofing and Restoration, a business registered with the Georgia Corporations Division in his name. He was married, father of two children.
According to Creek’s military records, he had served at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina between 1995 and 1999 as a vehicle recovery operator assigned to the Motor Transport Maintenance Company, 2nd Maintenance Battalion, 2nd Force Service Support Group. He was honorably discharged as a corporal.
A tipster contacted the FBI, saying Creek sought treatment for tear gas inhalation at Northside Forsyth Hospital in Cumming, Georgia, following the protest on Capitol Hill.
In a subsequent interview with FBI agents, Creek told them that he “lost his country” on January 6, 2021.
In a pre-sentencing motion filed by Creek’s criminal defense attorney, Troy Jones, Creek expressed “extreme remorse and regret” for committing what he admitted to be “a very serious crime. “.
Jones told the judge that Creek did not destroy or loot government property and claimed that Creek also helped move a female officer who was “in distress” and surrounded by crowds near the steps of the Capitol.
“Having been a Marine who defended our country, Kevin is ashamed of what he did,” Jones wrote. “Kevin’s dad was a law enforcement officer and soldier, and he knows how to respect authority figures. Kevin accepts full responsibility for his actions and wishes this never happened.
In his motion, Jones wrote that Creek was not attracted to right-wing organizations or causes, even on social media. Jones urged the judge to sentence Creek to probation and community service, not jail.
Federal prosecutor Kathryn E. Fifield disagreed. In his court petition, Fifield urged the judge to send Creek to jail for 27 months, in part because he “has yet to show significant remorse for his actions.”
“Creek’s lack of remorse after the attack on the Capitol demonstrates a real danger of future violence from this defendant,” Fifield added.
Fifield detailed Creek’s planning for the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally, including carrying a first aid kit, sledgehammer, boot knife ‘in case of attack by members of Antifa” and binoculars at the rally. He and the other three also brought radios, in case the “telephones broke,” she added, and he wore a camouflage-colored baseball cap bearing the US Marine Corps logo.
Creek pointed to that cap after punching a Metropolitan Police officer in his face shield, the melee captured in surveillance footage.
He then turned on a United States Capitol Police officer, knocking him to the ground, where another rioter lunged at the cop. Creek then threw a heavy ratchet strap over the police cordon.
Normally, Fifield wrote, Creek would get credit for his honorable service in the Marine Corps, but the fact that on Jan. 6, 2021, he “appeared to invoke that status immediately after assaulting a police officer and before moving on to attack a another makes this aspect of its history and characteristics more aggravating than mitigating.
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