Swayed by false election claims, 11 so far from SC face justice in Jan. 6 Capitol riot

They traveled to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, from places like Rock Hill, Anderson and The Citadel, South Carolina’s premier military college.

They came by car and by bus, filled with the false belief that the November 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and that they could somehow stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election.

A year later, 11 South Carolinians are among the roughly 725 people nationally who face criminal charges for their alleged actions in the nation’s capital that day, when a pro-Trump mob broke through police lines and invaded the U.S. Capitol, forcing Congress to stop certification of Biden’s 2020 election win and jeopardizing the nation’s 230-year history of peaceful passage of power in presidential elections.

Only one person from South Carolina has so far been sentenced.

Five have pleaded guilty or intend to, and five have yet to decide whether to stand trial.

The sights of Americans surrounding the Capitol, storming barricades, climbing walls, breaking windows and fighting with police kept millions glued to their televisions for hours. It was a day when lawmakers fled, their staffs cowered, and the mob — including a bare-chested man in a horned headdress — ruled. Some 140 police were injured.

The 11 from South Carolina face ordinary-sounding criminal charges, such as assaulting an officer or trespassing. But the situation was anything but ordinary.

“The mere disruption of a core constitutional process such as the certification of electoral college ballots is a big deal,” said Thomas Crocker, a University of South Carolina School of Law constitutional law professor. “It goes to the heart of American constitutionalism — how we select a president and how we transfer power from one presidential administration to the next.

“There is no United States of America, there is no ‘We the People’ if we don’t follow our Constitutional procedures.”

Crocker and others are puzzled about how so many rioters came to believe baseless allegations that Democrats committed massive voting fraud in numerous states and stole the election from Trump.

In the aftermath, Trump’s own former Attorney General, William Barr, said no massive voting fraud existed after a nationwide review by the FBI. More than 60 lawsuits alleging fraud were filed in more than half a dozen states challenging the election results, and all but one were kicked out of court for lack of evidence or jurisdiction. Numerous recounts and audits have confirmed Biden’s election by 81 million to 74 million in the popular vote and 306-232 in the electoral vote.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, a veteran S.C. lawman whose officers in May 2020 helped quell two days of sometimes-violent unrest in downtown Columbia, said in an interview that the violence at the U.S. Capitol was the worst thing he’s ever seen.

“I thought we had it bad until I saw what happened at the Capitol,” Lott said. “The Capitol was a sad display of Americans just attacking police officers for doing their job — anybody who did that is not a true American.”

In all cases against the 11 South Carolinians charged in the Capitol riot, prosecutors have brought forth video and photo evidence, their social media postings, diary entries and cellphone GPS location data, according to court filings.

Nearly all of the 11 were turned in to the FBI by friends or relatives.

More South Carolina defendants could ultimately be charged.

In a statement to The State, an FBI spokesman said the federal agency continues to actively investigate the Jan. 6 riot.

“We are unable to answer questions regarding any ongoing or potential investigations, but the FBI continues to seek the public’s assistance in identifying more than 350 individuals (nationwide) believed to have committed violent acts on the Capitol grounds,” the FBI said in a statement.

The FBI has shared images of the 350 unidentified alleged rioters at www.fbi.gov/wanted/capitol-violence and continues to seek tips and information.

First SC man sentenced

Andrew Hatley, 34, was sentenced in December to three months of probation after tipsters turned him in to the FBI.

His offense — “knowingly” parading or demonstrating inside the U.S. Capitol — was “minimal” compared to many others, said the judge who sentenced him.

Although he entered the Capitol through a broken window, he did so at the rear of a crowd. He lingered for about 15 minutes, exited the building, then entered again for a few minutes while he took selfies before he left.

He vandalized no property; he did not assault any officers.

Hatley told Judge Thomas Hogan he’s sorry he was in the Capitol that day. “I’ve lost half the people that I’ve known all my life,” Hatley said at his sentencing. “I’ve turned politics into something ugly, where people can’t talk (to each other).“

Hatley’s lawyer, Joseph Conte, told the judge, “He feels sorry there was an attack on democracy. ... He knows what he did is wrong.”

“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,” Hogan told Hatley.

Three await sentencing

▪ Nicholas Languerand, 26, pleaded guilty in November to assaulting a police officer and will be sentenced Jan. 20.

Although eligible for a 20-year sentence, Languerand will likely get an actual sentence of up to 57 months — a little less than five years —in prison, U.S. Judge John Bates said at a Nov. 3 guilty plea hearing

Evidence indicated Languerand was among the most violent of all 11 South Carolina defendants. Video captured him among an aggressive group of rioters in a fight with police near an archway outside the Capitol that led to a door and passage to the interior of the building, according to evidence in the case.

Languerand threw various objects at U.S. Capitol and Washington police, including an orange traffic barrier and two stick objects — objects that could have hurt police, Judge Bates noted.

Evidence against Languarand includes his own writings indicating he believed the election had been stolen: “If you are ok with fraudulently certifying an election to win, then I’m ok with attacking a government building to stop you,” said a note on his cell phone. Other postings indicated he was a follower of QAnon, an internet spawner of false conspiracy theories.

Languerand, a U.S. Army veteran, was denied bond because of his history of extremist and false conspiracy beliefs, violence, confrontational behavior and access to a variety of weapons, according to court records.

Languerand had been living in Vermont but moved to Little River, a community just north of Myrtle Beach, to live with his grandparents after the riot. He got a job with an Horry County company.

“Defendant’s decision to engage in violence in order to subvert the orderly transition of power is the principal consideration here, and it weighs strongly in favor of detention,” Bates wrote.

▪ John H. Getsinger Jr. and Stacie Hargis-Getsinger, a husband-wife team from Hanahan, pleaded guilty in early December to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building — a misdemeanor offense that carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

A sentencing hearing for the Getsingers before federal Judge Emmet Sullivan is set for April 21.

Arrested last June, the pair has been free on $75,000 unsecured bond. Surveillance tapes captured them last Jan. 6 wandering around the Capitol, at one point holding hands. Evidence against them also included their internet postings — including one saying “The (presidential) election was rigged” — and four separate tips to the FBI.

The Getsingers stayed in the Capitol 40 minutes, knew they weren’t supposed to be there, and people around them were breaking windows and assaulting police officers, according to evidence in the case.

▪ James Lollis, of Greer, who pleaded guilty in November to the misdemeanor charge of “parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building,” will be sentenced on Feb. 17 by Judge Beryl Howell.

Lollis, who attended President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally just before rioters stormed the Capitol, was in the Capitol about five minutes. He committed no violent acts during that time, a prosecutor’s brief in the case says.

Just before entering the Capitol, Lollis was recorded telling a Metropolitan police officer, “Y’all are on the same team we are, aren’t you? You’re not going to respond? You’re not on the same team?”

Evidence against Lollis includes photos and surveillance tapes.

One slated to plead guilty

Paul Colbath, from Ft. Mill, who is charged with disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, was arrested in October.

Colbath is scheduled to plead guilty on Monday before Judge Randolph Moss, according to federal court records. He faces a maximum of six months in prison.

Colbath was arrested after a tipster contacted the FBI National Threat Operations Center to report that he “had been publicly bragging to friends and family” about participating in the riots within the Capitol.”

Colbath told an FBI agent that he went into one office in the Capitol and “saw a broken window and vandalism to the office, and when he saw the clear signs of destruction, he knew that being in the Capitol building was wrong,” according to a complaint in the case. He left the Capitol minutes later.

Where do pleas stand?

▪ Elias Irizarry, of York County, a Citadel sophomore, was arrested last March. Photographs showed him with a metal pipe. Tipsters helped the FBI identify him. In mid-December, a grand jury indicted him — a sign that he is resisting pleading guilty to reduced charges.

David Pascoe, a 1989 Citadel graduate who led a successful investigation into S.C. State House corruption, says if Irizarry is convicted on criminal charges in the storming of the Capitol, he should be expelled from the military college.

“People have been thrown out of that school for a lot less,” said Pascoe, who is 1st Circuit solicitor and whose son also graduated from The Citadel, a state-supported military college, many of whose graduates enlist in the armed services. Service members take an oath to uphold the Constitution.

According to a Citadel spokeswoman, “it would be inappropriate for the college to speculate” about what might happen to Irizarry if he pleads guilty to any Capitol-related charges. Also, The Citadel could not answer this question due to a federal law protecting students’ privacy, she said.

Irizarry is slated to have a “status conference” on Feb. 23 before Judge Tanya S. Chutkan where he might declare which way he will go.

▪ Elliott Bishai, of York County, a friend of Irizarry’s who was with him at the Capitol last Jan. 6, is also scheduled to appear on Feb. 23 before Judge Chutkan. There, he might announce if he wants a trial. He faces the same charges as Irizarry: engaging in disorderly conduct with the intent to impede a session of Congress, entering a restricted Capitol building and parading and demonstrating in a U.S. Capitol building.

Bishai was planning on entering the U.S. Army last year and enrolling in a selective warrant officer program. However, due to the criminal charges, those plans were put on hold. If he is convicted of charges related to the storming of the Capitol, his future with the military would not be guaranteed.

▪ William “Robbie” Norwood III, of Greer, has rejected a prosecution offer to plead guilty. He is scheduled for a hearing before Judge Sullivan on Jan. 13, according to federal court records.

Norwood, arrested last March, was indicted by a federal grand jury in July and faces several criminal charges. They are theft of government property, obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, entering and remaining in certain Capitol rooms.

Specifics in the indictment charge him with intending to disrupt government business in the Capitol and stealing a Capitol police officer’s body armor and helmet.

Norwood has been on home detention, with exceptions for matters such as meetings with his lawyer, gym visits, church and seeing his child. He is being monitored by GPS and forbidden to have guns, according to court records.

Norwood was turned in a by a friend, who showed the FBI text messages Norwood had sent after the riot, including, “I fought 4 cops, they did nothing. When I put my red hat on, they pepper balled me....I got a nice helmet and body armor off a cop for God’s sake and I disarmed him. Tell me how that work..”

▪ George Tenney III, of Anderson, was indicted in October on nine charges including assaulting a law officer and engaging in acts of violence inside the Capitol.

A status hearing in his case has been set for Jan. 12 before Judge Hogan.

Evidence in Tenney’s case shows he breached a Capitol Senate side door at 2:19 pm last Jan. 6, just minutes after the mob forced their way into the Capitol.

In late December 2020, Tenney began posting messages on social media saying things like, “I heard over 500k armed militia patriots will be in DC by the (Jan.) 4th. ... It’s starting to look like we may siege the capital building and Congress if the electoral votes don’t go right. ... We are forming plans for every scenario,” according to a criminal complaint in his case.

The complaint alleged that Tenney helped rioters into the Capitol and physically interfered with police once he was inside.

Evidence in his case includes numerous videos and photographs, his social media postings and government witnesses, according to federal court records.

▪ Derek Gunby, 41, of Anderson, is charged with “disorderly and disruptive conduct within the U.S. Capitol grounds and in ... Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, and disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress,” according to criminal charges in his case.

No hearing date has been set for Gunby, a U.S. Army veteran and Trump supporter.

Gunby was turned in to the FBI by a tipster, and evidence in his case includes photographs of him inside and outside the Capitol. In one posting to Facebook early in the morning of last Jan. 6, he wrote, “Up at Zero Dark Thirty to stop this steal.” After the rally, he posted he had no regrets. “They just tried to steal this election right in front of everybody’s face.”

A U.S. House special bipartisan committee is investigating how the Capitol riot happened.

The committee’s areas of inquiry include whether Trump and any White House officials were involved in planning the riot, why Trump apparently did nothing to halt the riot for three hours, the financing behind Trump’s rally that preceded the riot, why the Capitol was so lightly defended, online misinformation, the role of organized extremists such as the Proud Boys in the attack, and the extent of any White House collusion with Congressional lawmakers to subvert the election certification.

Within weeks, the committee plans to begin holding televised hearings where witnesses will testify.

Widespread false conspiracy theories in social media played a major role in persuading people to march on the Capitol, said USC College of Information Science associate professor Nicole Cooke, who studies the airing of falsehoods.

“All of us need to be more careful about information we consume and get our information from a variety of sources,” Cooke said.

This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Swayed by false election claims, 11 so far from SC face justice in Jan. 6 Capitol riot."