Two men who were raised in the New Brunswick area were sentenced Friday for their roles in the Jan. 6 assault of Brian Sicknick, another New Jersey native and U.S. Capitol police officer who died the day after the rioting.
A federal judge in Washington D.C. sentenced Julian Khater, 33, to 80 months (6 years and 8 months) in prison. He pleaded guilty in September to two counts of felony assault of a federal officer, for unleashing a chemical spray at Sicknick, 42, and another officer.
He faced 78 to 97 months behind bars, as per federal guidelines, and federal prosecutors argued in a pre sentencing report he get 90 months, or 7 1/2 years. HIs lawyers, Joseph Tacopina and Chad Siegel, suggested time served.
Khater didn’t mention the death of Sicknick or address the officer’s family in a written statement he read aloud before U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan.
The judge sentenced George Tanios, 41, to time served. He spent 5 months behind bars after his 2021 arrest before pleading guilty in July 2022 to two misdemeanors, unlawfully entering and remaining in a restricted building and impeding the orderly conduct of government business.
Federal prosecutors had concurred in their pre sentencing report that time served would be appropriate for Tanios, who faced up to 6 months incarceration.
Tanios and Khater had originally been charged and indicted on 10 crimes, including felony assault on a federal officer.
Khater and Tanios were friends who traveled together to Washington, D.C. for the former president’s rally, then went to the Capitol. Video footage shows what the FBI alleged, that Khater pulled the can of chemical irritant he used from a backpack Tanios was wearing. He was angry that officers had sprayed him during a standoff that day.
“Give me that bear s---,” Khater says in the video, and appears to reach into Tanios’ backpack.
“Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet… it’s still early,” Tanios replies.
Khater fired away.
Sicknick took a facefull.
The 12-year officer died the day after the rioting of natural causes, caused by strokes. He was involved in physical fighting during the Capitol attacks and his death was classified as occurring in the line of duty.
The three men all have significant roots within a 15-minute car ride of each other in Middlesex County.
Khater and Tanios grew up in the New Brunswick area and each left as young men to open retail shops, Tanios, a sandwich shop in the college town of Morgantown, West Virginia, and Khater, fruit bowl shops in college towns in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Khater returned to the Garden State in 2020, to the town of Somerset.
Before moving to the Washington area, Sicknick, who grew up in South River and was a member of the New Jersey Air National Guard.
Dozens of police officers filled the courtroom gallery, with many others watching the proceedings on a television in an overflow courtroom.
Tanios and Khater weren’t charged in Sicknick’s death, but the officer’s relatives believe they bear responsibility. Sicknick’s mother, two brothers, a sister-in-law and his longtime girlfriend addressed the judge in court before he imposed the sentences.
“Your selfish actions have caused more pain than you could ever imagine,” said an older brother, Craig Sicknick. “My family is a wreck, and none of us have been even remotely unscathed as the result of your actions that day.”
Gladys Sicknick, the officer’s mother, told Khater he is “center stage in our recurring nightmare.”
“You attacked my son like he was an animal. You are the animal, Mr. Khater,” she said.
Khater submitted over a dozen letters from supporters prior to sentencing and Tanios’ uploaded a 14-minute YouTube video, which can be seen here, in which he and his fiancee discuss the case.
And federal prosecutors submitted victim letters from Sicknik family members, which they planned to read in court.
Gladys Sicknik wrote in a latter that the 751 days since her son died have been marked by a pummeling of horrific words and images that they cannot escape in the news and on the internet.
“But, we also see the face of my son, and those of courageous men and woman who stood their ground to protect our Democracy from a vicious mob. And I see you, Mr. Khater; you are center stage in our recurring nightmare.”
“You, among all the other crazies — you are the reason Brian is dead, Mr. Khater,” she wrote.
Gladys Sicknick did not mention Tanios, but she unleashed on Khater, writing that she did not know what type of upbringing led to a “deluded sense of right and wrong.”
“If I were your mother, I’d be embarrassed to have a son like you. I couldn’t bear to look at you — ever again. Which is how I feel right now. Let this be the last time, Mr. Khater,” she wrote.
She went on, “Lawlessness, misplaced loyalty, and hate, killed my son...and I hope you are haunted by your crimes behind bars. Whatever jail time you receive is not enough. I leave it to Judge Hogan to set your just reward, for having been part of the darkest days of my life, and among the worst in American history.”
Khater’s mother, Eleanor Fox, also wrote a letter, and she is quite proud of her son, who was a sweet child and grew into a gentle soul and wonderful sibling to his three brothers. “You will assume that I will have nothing but glowing sentiments towards my son,” she wrote to the judge. “In this case however, it is true.
Born in the United States, the family moved back to his native Lebanon in 1994 when Julian was 5. They returned to New Jersey in 2006, fleeing Israel Hezbollah war and making it back to the states via the Navy’s USS Trenton, Khater’s lawyers noted.
The move was tough, Fox wrote, and her teen son entered high school in Franklin without any friends. “He didn’t know anyone, and my heart would break as he would sit alone during lunch.” He found friends with a Catholic youth group, even joked about being a priest, and still has a strong faith. He commuted to Fairleigh Dickinson University and graduated with honors.
Khater even thought of being a police officer, but a DUI dashed that plan, his mother wrote.
Fox said she constantly asks herself why he went to the rally on Jan. 6. Her son once expressed that he is not a leader, and maybe he wanted to please his friend. “In hindsight, it was a mistake he deeply regrets. A moment of youthful folly, one now which will impact the rest of his life.”
She then begged the judge, “to kindly regard this incident as an awful mistake, not a reflection of Julian, nor of his life’s goals and possibilities. Julian has done nothing but pray during his incarceration. He formed a prayer group for his fellow inmates. I know that, given a second chance he will lead a peaceful and holy life, maybe even becoming the priest we joked about.”
This article contains material from the Associated Press.
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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com.
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