Capitol rioter who crushed officer with protect will get 7 years

WASHINGTON (AP) — A person who used a stolen riot protect to crush a police officer in a doorframe throughout the U.S. Capitol insurrection was sentenced on Friday to greater than seven years in jail for his position in some of the violent episodes of the Jan. 6 assault.

Federal prosecutors had beneficial 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 baby of all that was harmful and appalling about” the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.

“Your actions are a few of the most egregious crimes that had been dedicated on that darkish day,” the choose instructed 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 stated.

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 Heada Tennessee man who dragged Metropolitan Police Division Officer Michael Fanone right into a crowd of rioters.

Additionally on Friday, a Finksburg, Maryland, man pleaded responsible to assaulting an Related Press photographer and cops in separate assaults outdoors the Capitol on Jan. 6. Rodney Milstreed is scheduled to be sentenced on July 20. Chief Choose James Boasberg instructed Milstreed, 56, that the estimated sentencing tips for his case advocate 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 fees, after listening to trial testimony and not using a jury in September.

9 individuals, together with McCaughey, had been charged along with becoming a member of some of the brutal clashes on the Capitol on Jan. 6. Police and rioters had been combating for management of a tunnel entrance on the Decrease West Terrace when MPD Officer Daniel Hodges got here nose to nose with McCaughey, who used a stolen riot protect to pin Hodges to a steel doorframe.

“Go house!” McCaughey shouted on the officer.

Hodges, who testified at McCaughey’s trial and spoke at his sentencing listening to, stated he thinks concerning the horrors of Jan. 6 daily.

“I don’t foresee that altering anytime quickly,” he instructed 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 protect down over his eyes,” Assistant U.S. Legal professional Kimberly Paschall wrote in a courtroom submitting.

Hodges managed to retreat contained in the Capitol constructing and was taken to a hospital. McCaughey struck a second officer with the protect earlier than one other officer sprayed him with a chemical irritant, backing him away.

“It isn’t 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 yr, 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 tips for McCaughey advocate a jail time period starting from 9 years to 11 years and three months.

McCaughey’s attorneys requested a sentence of 1 yr behind bars. They stated McCaughey’s “reprehensible” actions had been motivated by his “misunderstanding” concerning 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 distinguished. Mr. McCaughey shouldn’t be one among these people; he is aware of he was flawed,” his legal professionals wrote.

McCaughey, a carpenter employed by his father’s building firm, drove about 300 miles (480 kilometers) from his Connecticut house to Washington, D.C., to attend Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. After listening to speeches, McCaughey went to the Capitol and joined different rioters in confronting cops guarding the West Plaza.

When the rioters broke via the police line, McCaughey climbed up the steps inside building 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 City police officer Thomas Websterwho was convicted by a jury of assaulting a Metropolitan Police Division officer with a steel flagpole.

Requested for his response to McCaughey’s sentence, Officer Hodges stated it is determined by what occurs when his assailant is launched from jail.

“We’ll see if he’s a modified man,” Hodges stated outdoors the courtroom.

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Observe the AP’s protection of the U.S. Capitol riot at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.