'Selfless' Connecticut man who crushed officer in doorframe asks for lenient sentence

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors want a Connecticut man who used a police riot shield to crush a DC Police officer in a doorframe on Jan. 6 to serve the longest sentence yet in a Capitol riot case – more than 15 years in prison.

The government’s sentencing request for Patrick McCaughey III, who was convicted in a September bench trial of seven felonies and two misdemeanors, falls at the top of the 151-188 month recommended guideline range prosecutors calculated. In one of the most starkly contrasting sentencing recommendations in a Capitol riot case to date, McCaughey’s attorney, Dennis Boyle, is asking for a sentence of just one year in prison.

McCaughey will be sentenced Friday morning by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a former police officer and 2017 nominee of former President Donald Trump who has already sentenced multiple of McCaughey’s co-defendants to years in prison. Last month, McFadden ordered Geoffrey Sills, of Mechanicsville, Virginia, to serve four years in prison for robbing and beating an officer with his own baton. Two weeks earlier, he sentenced Tristan Chandler Stevens, who went to trial with McCaughey, to five years in prison for assaulting former U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell with a riot shield. David Mehaffie, an Ohio man who was convicted of two felony counts but found not to have engaged in or aided the assault on police, was sentenced by McFadden to 14 months in prison.

Of the nine defendants indicted together in connection with the assault on police in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, prosecutors have consistently described McCaughey as among if not the most serious. He was convicted of three separate counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding police, including an enhanced felony charge for using a deadly or dangerous weapon. He was also the only defendant not already in pre-trial detention who McFadden “stepped back” – or ordered immediately into custody – following his conviction. While delivering his verdict, McFadden described in detail the harrowing moment when McCaughey used a riot shield and the force of the mob behind him to pin DC Police Officer Daniel Hodges in a doorframe while he screamed for help.

“Officer Hodges’ gutwrenching cries of pain shocked Mr. McCaughey into action,” Judge McFadden said, adding a short time later, “I note that even after he saw Officer Hodges injured, he carried on to battle Officer [Henry] Foulds.”

Hodges testified at trial that he feared he would lose consciousness from the pressure against him and would become a liability for his fellow officers who were attempting to repel the violent mob. In their memo, prosecutors highlighted how McCaughey pinned Hodges for two minutes while he screamed for help.

“In this case, the restraint applied to the victim was neither fleeting nor accidental,” they wrote. “It was concerted, forceful and intended to harm law enforcement generally for defending the tunnel and its entrance.”

McCaughey’s memo struck a decidedly different tone. Over 25 pages, his attorney, Boyle, repeatedly described his 25-year-old client’s “selfless” nature and role as a “pillar in his community” – the affluent Connecticut town of Ridgefield. McCaughey blamed his father, described variously as a “fervent Trump supporter” and “radical,” for his presence in D.C. His aunt is quoted as remembering him as an “especially kind and thoughtful child.”

Despite claiming he has “fully admitted his role in the riot,” McCaughey’s memo only briefly touched upon his actual conduct that day. Hodges’ name only appeared twice McCaughey’s memo – both times in a footnote arguing his injuries couldn’t be attributed to McCaughey. In a paragraph beginning on page 22 of 25, McCaughey said his actions were "limited to pushing officers with a riot shield” and were “only impactful due to the force of protestors who proceeded to push Mr. McCaughey into the line of officers.”

The longest sentence handed down to date in a Capitol riot case was given to former NYPD officer Thomas Webster, who was ordered to serve 10 years in prison for assaulting DC Police Officer Noah Rathbun. At least two defendants, Thomas Robertson and Guy Reffitt, have been ordered to serve more than seven years in prison. Neither was convicted of assaulting police.

McCaughey was scheduled to be sentenced by McFadden Friday morning at 10 a.m. in D.C. District Court.

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