WASHINGTON (AP) — A person who used a stolen riot defend to crush a police officer in a doorframe throughout the U.S. Capitol rebellion was sentenced on Friday to greater than seven years in jail for his position in one of the violent episodes of the Jan. 6 assault.
Federal prosecutors had really helpful a jail sentence of 15 years and eight months for Patrick McCaughey III, which might have been the longest sentence for a Capitol riot case by greater than 5 years.
U.S. District Choose Trevor McFadden sentenced McCaughey to seven years and 6 months in jail adopted by two years of supervised launch. The choose described McCaughey, 25, as a “poster little one of all that was harmful and appalling about” the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
“Your actions are among the most egregious crimes that have been dedicated on that darkish day,” the choose informed McCaughey.
McCaughey, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, expressed disgrace for becoming a member of the mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters who “violated” the Capitol.
“I’m sorry that I performed myself much less like a citizen and extra like an animal that day,” he mentioned.
McCaughey’s 90-month sentence matches the second longest jail sentence to date for a Capitol riot defendant. It’s the identical size because the sentence that one other choose handed all the way down to Albuquerque Cosper Head, a Tennessee man who dragged Metropolitan Police Division Officer Michael Fanone right into a crowd of rioters.
Justice Division by way of AP
Additionally on Friday, a Finksburg, Maryland, man pleaded responsible to assaulting an Related Press photographer and law enforcement officials in separate assaults outdoors the Capitol on Jan. 6. Rodney Milstreed is scheduled to be sentenced on July 20. Chief Choose James Boasberg informed Milstreed, 56, that the estimated sentencing pointers for his case suggest a time period of imprisonment starting from 5 years and three months to 6 years and 6 months.
The choose in McCaughey’s case convicted him of 9 counts, together with felony assault expenses, after listening to trial testimony and not using a jury in September.
9 individuals, together with McCaughey, have been charged along with becoming a member of one of the brutal clashes on the Capitol on Jan. 6. Police and rioters have been combating for management of a tunnel entrance on the Decrease West Terrace when MPD Officer Daniel Hodges got here head to head with McCaughey, who used a stolen riot defend to pin Hodges to a metallic doorframe.
“Go residence!” McCaughey shouted on the officer.
Hodges, who testified at McCaughey’s trial and spoke at his sentencing listening to, mentioned he thinks in regards to the horrors of Jan. 6 day by day.
“I don’t foresee that altering anytime quickly,” he informed the choose, describing McCaughey as a “foot soldier” who was at “the vanguard of the assault.”
Hodges screamed out for assist when one other rioter grabbed the officer’s baton and struck him within the face with it.
“It was solely then, over two minutes after the assault started, that McCaughey relented and pulled Officer Hodges’s face defend down over his eyes,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer Kimberly Paschall wrote in a court docket submitting.
Hodges managed to retreat contained in the Capitol constructing and was taken to a hospital. McCaughey struck a second officer with the defend earlier than one other officer sprayed him with a chemical irritant, backing him away.
“It’s not an exaggeration to state the actions of those officers in thwarting the mob on the Decrease West Terrace entrance probably saved the lives of others, together with members of Congress,” Paschall wrote.
The choose convicted McCaughey of obstructing an official continuing, the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election victory over Trump.
Earlier this 12 months, the choose sentenced 4 of McCaughey’s co-defendants to phrases of imprisonment starting from 14 months to 5 years. Paschall argued that McCaughey’s conduct was extra “egregious and protracted” than the others’.
A probation officer’s calculation of the sentencing pointers for McCaughey suggest a jail time period starting from 9 years to 11 years and three months.
McCaughey’s attorneys requested a sentence of 1 12 months behind bars. They mentioned McCaughey’s “reprehensible” actions have been motivated by his “misunderstanding” in regards to the 2020 presidential election. Trump, the Republican incumbent, falsely claimed that Democrats stole the election from him.
“There stay many grifters on the market who stay free to proceed propagating the ‘nice lie’ that Trump gained the election, Donald Trump being among the many most outstanding. Mr. McCaughey just isn’t one in every of these people; he is aware of he was mistaken,” his legal professionals wrote.
McCaughey, a carpenter employed by his father’s development firm, drove about 300 miles (480 kilometers) from his Connecticut residence to Washington, D.C., to attend Trump’s “Cease the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. After listening to speeches, McCaughey went to the Capitol and joined different rioters in confronting law enforcement officials guarding the West Plaza.
When the rioters broke by way of the police line, McCaughey climbed up the steps inside development scaffolding and took a selfie atop the construction. Minutes later, he joined the mob in a coordinated “heave-ho” push in opposition to officers guarding the Decrease West Terrace tunnel entrance.
Greater than 1,000 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the lethal Jan. 6 riot. Over 600 of them have pleaded responsible or been convicted after trials determined by a jury or a choose. Over 450 of them have been sentenced, with greater than half getting phrases of imprisonment starting from seven days to 10 years.
The ten-year jail sentence was for retired New York Metropolis police officer Thomas Webster, who was convicted by a jury of assaulting a Metropolitan Police Division officer with a metallic flagpole.
Requested for his response to McCaughey’s sentence, Officer Hodges mentioned it is dependent upon what occurs when his assailant is launched from jail.
“We’ll see if he’s a modified man,” Hodges mentioned outdoors the courtroom.
Observe the AP’s protection of the U.S. Capitol rebellion at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.