South Jersey farmer admits shoving against police lines during Jan. 6 Capitol attack

A Gloucester County farmer has become the 26th New Jersey resident convicted of playing a role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building in Washington.

Ezekiel “Zeke” Stecher, 48, of Mantua Township, told a federal judge Friday that he’d been among the mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump’s that pushed against police lines, brawled with officers, and eventually breached the lower west entrance to the building.

In a deal struck with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to one count of interfering with police during a civil disorder, a felony crime that carries a maximum prison term of up to five years.

So far, the Justice Department has charged more than 1,030 people nationwide with participating in the Capitol attack, which interrupted the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s victory, caused more than $2.8 million in damage, and left hundreds of officers injured. Officials have described the investigation as the largest and most complex in the department’s history.

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But unlike many of the other defendants facing prosecution for their role in the riot, Stecher made building a case against him relatively easy.

A video uploaded anonymously to the FBI tip line shortly after the attack depicted him — wearing a fur-lined winter coat and a baseball cap bearing the logo of agricultural retailer Growmark FS — moving among the throngs attacking the police.

At one point, the person filming the video asked him his name and where he was from.

“Zeke Stecher,” Stecher replied, “from New Jersey.”

Within weeks, agents had tracked him down to his farm. According to court papers, they corroborated his presence in the Capitol’s lower west tunnel with security camera footage and other videos from the scene shared on social media.

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The fighting between the rioters and police in the tunnel lasted more than two hours and was among the most violent altercations to erupt throughout that day. Rioters repeatedly assaulted, threatened, shoved, and beat police struggling to keep them at bay.

The footage, prosecutors said, showed Stecher forcefully pushing the crowd forward to police lines as he and others chanted such slogans as “Our house!” and “Stop the Steal!”

At one point, Stecher retreated after officers blasted him with pepper spray. But he returned quickly after, rejoining the fracas.

He would later tell authorities he simply “got caught up in it” with the other members of the mob.

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After his March 2021 arrest, Stecher had initially been confined to his home, a restriction the federal judge overseeing his case later lifted so he could work the fields of the 150-acre fruit-and-vegetable farm his family has owned since 1905.

Under the terms of the plea deal he cemented Friday, prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of anywhere from probation up to six months behind bars at a sentencing hearing that U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss has scheduled for September.

Stecher, who has no prior criminal record, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. His lawyers, Michael E. Lawlor and Nicholas George Madiou, did not immediately return requests for comment.