Epoch Times Reporter Joseph Hanneman available for interviews
Text from 1/31/2024 Epoch Times Article for reference written by Joseph M. Hanneman
Sheriff’s Deputy Who Aided Rosanne Boyland on Jan. 6 Faces Up to 14 Years in Prison
‘I don’t even know the words to be honest with you about how insane this is,’ Sarah McAbee said of the proposed sentence for her husband, Ronald Colton McAbee.
Sarah McAbee said she wasn’t shocked that federal prosecutors used sentencing “enhancements” to develop a recommendation that her Jan. 6 defendant husband be sent to prison for 14 years for the roughly seven minutes he spent outside the tunnel entrance at the U.S. Capitol.
“I don’t even know the words to be honest with you about how insane this is,” Ms. McAbee said about the ongoing case against former sheriff’s deputy Ronald Colton McAbee, 30, of Unionville, Tennessee. “You know, there’s just no words when you sit back and think about it as a whole.”
Mr. McAbee was found guilty by a jury in October of five felony charges including inflicting bodily injury on Metropolitan Police Department Officer Andrew Wayte, civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
In September, he pleaded guilty to two other charges, including assault on MPD officer Carter Moore. Mr. McAbee swiped at and shoved the officer after he struck Mr. McAbee’s shoulder, which had recently been broken, with a riot stick.
Federal prosecutors want U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras to sentence Mr. McAbee to 14 years in prison, which would rank in the top 10 punishments doled out among the more than 1,260 Jan. 6 cases. Sentencing is set for Feb. 29 in Washington D.C.
Prosecutors have not yet filed their sentencing memorandum with the court explaining the rationale for the recommended sentence. Ms. McAbee said she learned of the prison term through her husband’s defense attorney.
NOTE: Mr. McAbee’s case was featured in The Epoch Times documentary, “The Real Story of Jan. 6 Part 2: The Long Road Home.”
Ms. McAbee spoke at a Jan. 9 Capitol Hill screening of the film.
Defense attorney William Shipley, who represented Mr. McAbee during part of his criminal case and also appeared in The Epoch Times film, called the verdicts in the McAbee trial a “horrendous miscarriage of justice.”
Joseph M. Hanneman is a reporter for The Epoch Times with a focus on the January 6 Capitol incursion and its aftermath, as well as general Wisconsin news. In 2022, he helped to produce “The Real Story of Jan. 6,” an Epoch Times documentary about the events that day. Joe has been a journalist for nearly 40 years.
CONTACT: Joseph Hanneman at: joseph.hanneman@epochtimes.us but if you cannot reach Joseph directly, you may contact Jerry McGlothlin of Special Guests Publicity at: 919-437-0001 https://SpecialGuests.com/ or by email at: jerry@specialguests.com
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