SC man who admitted he was wrong to participate in Capitol riot gets 3 years probation

A South Carolina man avoided prison and was sentenced to three years probation for his “minimal” role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Andrew Hatley, 34, avoided a prison sentence and even house arrest in large part because he admitted he was wrong, cooperated with the FBI and showed remorse, said U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan during a hearing in Washington.

Hatley, who pleaded guilty in September, was the first of 11 South Carolinians charged so far to be sentenced for actions he took during January’s storming of the Capitol.

“Mr. Hatley, you have been man enough to stand up and admit that what you did was wrong,” said Hogan, who told Hatley many rioters that day had followed “false prophets” who spread baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election being stolen and staged an “attempted overthrow ” of the government.

“It’s been a big lie that’s been pushed by various individuals,” Hogan said.

Another inaccurate narrative being spread is that “nothing really happened” during the riot, the judge said. “It was a serious attack on our democracy ... essentially to have a coup in the United States to have a non-elected official take over as president.”

Hundreds of people, largely Trump supporters, breached the Capitol during a formal session of Congress to certify the states’ electoral votes that showed Joe Biden had won the presidency. Lawmakers fled, Congress was shut down for five hours and the Capitol “was occupied by a hostile crowd,” the judge said.

“Over 140 people were injured in this attack by people who were claiming themselves to be patriots,” the judge said.

As important as Hatley’s admissions and remorse was the fact that Hatley was only in the Capitol a short time and did not vandalize property or assault officers during those minutes, Hogan said.

Federal prosecutors asked Hogan to give Hatley two months’ home detention, but the judge said that with Hatley’s traveling work schedule, combined with the remorse he showed, home detention wouldn’t be appropriate.

Before sentencing Hatley, the judge reviewed a chart showing that of all the rioters sentenced so far, Hatley fell on the very low end of a spectrum of factors in his case that would cause him to be sentenced to prison.

Hatley was sentenced for was “knowingly” parading or demonstrating inside the U.S. Capitol. Three other charges against him were dropped as part of his plea agreement.

“Mr. Hatley’s conduct was more minimal than most that day,” assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Birney told the judge.

Hatley, a long haul truck driver who lives with an acquaintance and sleeps on their couch in South Carolina, had no prior criminal record.

Hatley told the judge his personal life has taken a toll since being arrested in January by the FBI.

Friends have stopped speaking to him because he participated in the assault on the Capitol, he said.

“I’ve lost half the people that I’ve known all my life,” he said. “I’ve turned politics into something ugly, where people can’t talk (to each other).“

Photos, which were a part of the FBI’s criminal complaint against Hatley, showed him wearing a gas mask inside the Capitol during the riot.

Hatley told the judge that he followed news accounts of previous demonstrations and saw where pepper spray had been used on protesters, so he put on a respirator mask.

“I weigh over 300 pounds, your honor, I can’t run very well,” Hatley said, adding that if anyone at the Capitol had started using pepper spray, he believed he wouldn’t be able to leave fast enough to avoid it.

In response to questions from the judge, Hatley described his personal life.

“I have spent most of the last five years mostly alone in the truck. I don’t have the same baseline as other people for dealing with people,” Hatley said. “When I get near people, I just follow what they do.”

While walking to the Capitol on Jan. 6, “I just got acclimated to the crowd that got denser and denser... Going in there (the Capitol) wasn’t right,” Hatley said. “Probably coming down here wasn’t right to begin with. I wish I hadn’t. Grains of sand make a heap, and I’m one of them.”

Hatley’s attorney, Joseph Conte, had sought a probation sentence only. He said he rarely sees clients as remorseful as Hatley.

“He feels sorry for what he has done; he feels sorry there was an attack on democracy,” Conte said. “He knows what he did is wrong.”

Hatley climbed through a broken window to enter the Capitol, but he was “at the back of the crowd” and only stayed for about 15 minutes, Conte said. Hatley climbed back out the window, but then about two minutes later, came back in, Conte said. This time, Hatley stayed for a few minutes, took some photos and then left, Conte said.

“He decided to come to D.C. to peacefully protest the results of the election and the lack of attention to alleged voting irregularities. He did so with no intent to do anything but add his voice to the vocal protests over the injustice he perceived had happened in the election,” Conte wrote in a pretrial brief.

The judge spent part of Thursday’s hearing elaborating on what he described as an inaccurate narrative of a stolen election that had caused many rioters to storm the Capitol.

Noting he had previously sentenced rioters to prison, Hogan said many defendants appearing in court were persisting “in a wrongful belief that— despite their fighting the police — they did nothing wrong because they were acting as patriots — which is foolishness.”

Referring by name to Trump Administration, Judge Hogan said the former president’s allies had filed more than 50 lawsuits alleging election fraud that went to various judges, as well as to the Supreme Court, and all of them were turned down.

Rioters have said they were just exercising their First Amendment rights, said Hogan. “I say to them, ‘Your First Amendment right is to attack the police and beat them? Your First Amendment right resulted in five people dying in this riot’.”

Hogan indicated that other rioters who appear before him may not get the same sentence Hatley got.

“Each defendant is unique,” the judge said. “Some did various things in their attack on the Capitol, and others walked in, walked out again without doing anything, but still had the purpose, I believe, to interrupt the operation of our democracy and the transfer of power.”

This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 11:37 AM with the headline "SC man who admitted he was wrong to participate in Capitol riot gets 3 years probation."