Covington man dubbed 'green horn hoodlum' gets 3 years in prison for role in Capitol riots
A Northern Kentucky man, known on Twitter as the "green horn hoodlum," has been sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, court records show.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly handed down the sentence last Thursday to 22-year-old Nicholas Brockhoff, according to records filed in federal court in Washington D.C.
He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release that will begin once his prison term is over.
Brockhoff, of Covington, pleaded guilty in October to a single count of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon. As part of his plea, prosecutors dismissed seven other counts, court records show.
He was part of a mob that gathered on the west side of the Capitol while a joint session of Congress was certifying electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election, federal prosecutors said.
While there, prosecutors say Brockhoff threw an unknown object at police officers; assaulted officers by discharging a fire extinguisher toward them; obtained a police helmet and wore it "like a trophy" throughout the afternoon; entered a Senate room through a broken window and kicked in a door to gain entry to a different Senate conference room.
"Every time Brockhoff discharged a fire extinguisher, he caused law enforcement officers to disperse, which interfered with their ability to conduct crowd control and prevented them from seeing, avoiding, or deflecting projectiles and weapons intended to injure them," the court documents state.
Prosecutors say Brockhoff was confronted by law enforcement confronted as he climbed out of the Capitol through a broken window. That's when he gave up the police helmet.
Prosecutors said Brockhoff gave his identity to a police officer at the Capitol.
The officer asked his name and he replied, “Nick.”
“Nick what?” the officer asked.
“Brockhoff,” he said.
He was arrested in Counce, Tennessee in May 2021. Before the charges in the Capitol case, Brockhoff didn’t have a criminal record as an adult.
Brockhoff grew up in Covington, where he lived with his twin older brothers, twin sister and his parents.
His mother, April Frese Brockhoff, served on the Covington Independent Public Schools board from 2015 through 2020. She was unanimously elected as chairperson of the board in 2017.
Brockhoff played basketball and baseball at Holmes High School in Covington, where he graduated in 2019. He made the honor roll in high school and studied abroad in Spain.
His attorney, Alex Stavrou, has yet to respond to a request for comment from The Enquirer.
"In a matter of a few hours, Nick lost his bearings and his way, and – for less than 10 minutes – found himself in a place he shouldn’t have been with actions he knows he shouldn’t have taken," Stavrou wrote in a pre-sentence court filing. "Mr. Brockhoff understands what he has done, is apologetic for his actions and offers no excuses for his conduct."
Enquirer archive files were used in this report.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Covington man gets 3 years for role in Jan. 6 Capitol riots
