As Trump considers pardons, southern Illinois man gets sentenced in Jan. 6 riot case
A 37-year-old Hamilton County man who admitted to damaging a window in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol was given an 11-month prison sentence in a federal court hearing conducted just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Monday.
Justin LaGesse of McLeansboro also was sentenced on Friday to serve 12 months of supervised release and pay $43,315 in restitution for the damaged window, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a news release.
Trump has said he would pardon rioters on “Day 1,” The Associated Press has reported.
“Those people have suffered long and hard,” Trump told NBC News last month. “And there may be some exceptions to it. I have to look. But, you know, if somebody was radical, crazy.”
On Sunday, Vice President-elect JD Vance told Fox News that “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned, and there’s a little bit of a gray area there, but we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law. And there are a lot of people, we think, in the wake of January the 6th who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that.”
LaGesse pleaded guilty in August to a felony charge of destruction of government property. As part of his plea bargain, five other charges filed against him were dismissed.
He was represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Julie Clark of St. Louis. Clark could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Chief Judge James E. Boasberg, who was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama, handed down the sentence imposed on LaGesse.
LaGesse was ordered to surrender to federal authorities by March 1.
LaGesse’s co-defendant, Theodore Middendorf, 36, also of McLeansboro previously pleaded guilty to a felony charge of destruction of government property, the federal prosecutor’s news release stated.
A sentencing date for Middendorf has not been set, according to federal court records.
Actions on Jan. 6
LaGesse and Middendorf first entered the U.S. Capitol at about 2:51 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, through a broken window next to the Senate Wing Door, according to a “statement of offense” filed in federal court records.
They left the building at about 3:02 p.m.
The court records state LaGesse called police officers outside the building “(expletive) traitors” and “(expletive) communist scum.”
At 4:09 p.m. LaGesse and Middendorf were on the north side of the building “where a large group of rioters were attempting to breach the building through the North Door” but police officers defended it.
“As the officers held back the rioters, LaGesse and Midendorf approached the nearby exterior window of room S-121 and struck the window with the bases of their flag poles several times,” according to court records.
“Although the window appeared to be previously damaged, LaGesse and Middendorf’s strikes caused additional damage to the window in several places.”
The Architect of the Capitol later determined that the cost of the damage to the window was $41,315.
LaGesse was arrested on Jan. 17, 2024.
“His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the news release.
The office said more than 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the riot. This includes over 600 people “charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM.
