Left: Andrew Taake. Right: Taake is seen holding a whip during a confrontation at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 (via FBI court filing).
A sentencing hearing collapsed this week over a dispute about a sentencing enhancement for a self-employed handyman from Texas who admitted to using a metal whip and spraying a can of bear spray on officers during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The hearing for Andrew Quentin Taake, 35, was postponed when his lawyer disagreed with the judge adding an enhancement to his client’s punishment for causing bodily harm to an officer based on an officer’s testimony that he was hurt by bear spray. The new enhancement would extend Taake’s sentencing range to between 87 and 108 months — or seven and nine years. That’s more than the 78 months — or 6.5 years — that prosecutors wanted and was not in the plea agreement which listed the guidelines at between 46 and 57 months.
Washington CBS affiliate WUSA reported that Taake’s attorney, Michael Lawlor, said that in his 27 years as a lawyer, he had never heard of a judge applying guidelines that differed from what was stated, Washington CBS affiliate WUSA reported.
“I can count on one hand — not even one hand — the number of times a judge has come in and said, ‘I’m going to apply a different guidelines calculation and this is the first time you’re hearing about it,'” Lawlor said, the outlet reported. “This is the only time it has happened.”
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Donald Trump appointee, said the enhancement should apply in this case, according to the outlet.
“Based on the government’s brief and the victim impact statement it’s as clear as day to me that the sentencing enhancement applies here,” Nichols said, WUSA reported.
The news station said prosecutors hadn’t requested the new enhancement because they hadn’t had the officer’s victim impact statement when they made the plea agreement.
Lawlor argued the information didn’t prove his client was the one who sprayed the officer in the face and asked for a continuance of the sentencing, according to the news outlet.
“I am not comfortable winging this,” Nichols said, WUSA reported.
Nichols ordered defense and government briefs next month before a new sentencing hearing on May 23, according to the court docket.
Taake had been on pretrial release for a pending child-solicitation case in Texas when he went to the Capitol prepared for violence, armed with bear spray and a metal whip, prosecutors said. He sprayed officers trying to hold the line with “bear-attack repellent spray” four times. He attacked an officer with a metal whip and threw a water bottle at the police line before climbing a wall, authorities said. He entered the Capitol through the Senate Wing Door soon after its initial breach and roamed around the building for 20 minutes, brandishing his metal whip, prosecutors said.
In the days following the riot, a witness who was messaging Taake on the Bumble dating app while he was in Washington, alerted the FBI to Taake’s role in the chaos, Law&Crime stated. As per legal papers, this witness claimed that Taake confessed to being present in the U.S. Capitol for about 30 minutes.
Legal papers reveal that Taake presented himself to his potential lover as nothing more than an innocent bystander.
“I was pepper sprayed, tear gassed, had flash bangs thrown at me, and hit with batons for peacefully standing there,” he said in a message to the potential match. He then sent a photo of himself with a scarf or gaiter covering the lower part of his face, which he said was taken about “30 minutes after being sprayed.”
“It's fair to say that I was the very first person to be sprayed that day … all while just standing there,” he said.
The witness and Taake never met face to face, according to court filings.
When he was taken into custody in Jan. 2021, the FBI found three loaded guns at Taake’s home despite being prohibited from having them as a felon, authorities reported.
In December 2023, he pleaded guilty to one charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon.
Prosecutors stated in legal papers that since then, “Taake has continuously shifted blame for his criminal actions on January 6 to the victim officers, members of Congress, and the media.”
“His ongoing story is that he and other ‘patriots’ were heroes and that he is a wrongfully detained victim of ‘selective persecution,'” prosecutors stated. “He has not shown any regret for his actions, or accepted responsibility — going so far as to deny responsibility even after his guilty plea.”
They stated that based on reports from his pretrial detention, he has “resorted to using violence against other inmates to ease his frustrations with his self-inflicted predicament.”