by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
Dozens of people who participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have filed a federal class action in Florida against the U.S. Capitol Police and D.C. Metropolitan Police, alleging actions by officers that day caused them physical and emotional injuries.
Three Florida residents filed the lawsuit in the Ocala division of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on Friday. A total of 46 plaintiffs overall seek more than $18 million in damages for injuries they allege were caused when police “indiscriminately launched explosive munitions, chemical agents, and impact projectiles into a peaceful crowd and physically assaulted members of the crowd” at the U.S. Capitol.
President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, offered a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to approximately 1,500 individuals convicted of offenses related to events at the Capitol. That was the first day of his second term. He acommuted the sentences of 14 people convicted of offenses related to Jan. 6.
The lead plaintiffs filing the lawsuit are Patrick and Marie Sullivan of Citrus County, and Alan E. Fischer III of Tampa.
Fischer was indicted on seven criminal charges for his Jan. 6 actions, including several violent felonies.
The lawsuit alleges the Sullivans were on the west terrace of the U.S. Capitol building when they were exposed to pepper spray and suffered injuries “typical of that kind of toxic exposure.” It alleges Fischer was on the west side of the building and was struck in the face and injured with a pepper ball. Later, the suit alleges, he too was exposed to pepper spray.
Among the plaintiffs is New York resident Dominic Pezzola. On Feb 1, 2023 , Pezzola was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 36 months of supervised release after a jury convicted him and four other defendants of multiple felonies. According to the indictment, Pezzola served as a member and leader of a special chapter of the Proud Boys known as the “Ministry of Self Defense.” He was one of the 14 people whose sentences Trump commuted.
Another plaintiff is Craig Bingert of Allentown, Pa. According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bingert and others grabbed a metal bike rack that the police were using as a barricade to defend the Capitol and pushed it hard against officers, resulting in injury to at least one officer. On Sept. 26, 2023, he was sentenced to 96 months in prison.
Another plaintiff is Christopher Worrell of Naples. He was sentenced on Jan. 4, 2024 to 120 months in prison on multiple felony counts that included assaulting a group of police officers with a deadly and dangerous weapon. The government alleged that along with other Proud Boys members from the “Hurricane Coast,” Worrell breached the restricted perimeter, reached the West Plaza of the Capitol, and sprayed pepper gel at a line of police officers and later shoved two U.S. Capitol Police officers who were defending the building,
According to a statement from the Department of Justice, after he was originally found guilty on May 12, 2023, after a bench trial in the District of Columbia. Worrell cut off his GPS ankle monitor in a Walmart and became a fugitive, leading to a six-week manhunt by the FBI before he was detained.
The lawsuit alleges the crowd was composed of protesters who were “overwhelmingly peaceful” before the police began launching explosive munitions like pepper balls, pepper spray, sting-ball grenades, and flash-bang grenades into the middle of the demonstration, “affecting peaceful, praying citizens exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Representing the plaintiffs is attorney Stephen Austin Carr of New Smyrna Beach. The Middle District’s jurisdiction stretches from Fort Myers to Jacksonville and includes Tampa and Orlando. Carr did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
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