A year ago we asked whether letter carrier Doug Hughes should be applauded or condemned for his gyrocopter protest of political campaign finance corruption. Now that Hughes has lost his job, been convicted and sentenced to 120 days in prison, do you think President Obama should pardon him? Department of Justice statement: WASHINGTON – Douglas Hughes, 62, of Ruskin, Fla., was sentenced today to 120 days in jail on a federal charge stemming from the April 15, 2015, incident in which he flew a gyrocopter into Washington, D.C., and landed on the West Front lawn of the Capitol, announced U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips, Matthew R. Verderosa, Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, and Tammy L. Whitcomb, Acting Inspector General for the United States Postal Service. Hughes pled guilty on Nov. 20, 2015, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to a felony charge of operating as an airman without an airman’s certificate. He was sentenced by the Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who stated that his actions showed a “total lack of concern and disregard” for the safety of others. Following completion of his prison term, Hughes will be placed on one year of supervised release; during that time, he is to stay away from the U.S. Capitol and White House. Also, as part of his plea agreement, he agreed to the forfeiture of his gyrocopter, which was seized on the day of the incident. Continue reading The Ruskin man who piloted his one-person aircraft through some of the nation’s most restricted airspace and landed on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol entered a guilty plea in the case Friday. Douglas Hughes’ plea in federal court in Washington had been expected. Earlier this month, Hughes told The Associated Press that he had agreed to plead guilty to a felony, operating a gyrocopter without a license. “I have always accepted that there would be consequences for what I did,” Hughes — who has called the April 15 stunt a way to call attention to the influence of big money in politics — told The AP. The Tampa Bay Times reports that Doug Hughes, the rural carrier who last week landed his gyro-copter on the US Capitol lawn, has been told to “stay away” from the post office: He called his employers at the Riverview Post Office to tell them he couldn’t come in Monday because he had to get fitted for his monitoring device but would be at work Tuesday. They told him he was on administrative leave pending investigation and to stay away.
Click the link below for more on Hughes’ flight. Continue reading News reports have identified the man who landed a gyrocopter on the US Capitol lawn this afternoon as Florida postal worker Doug Hughes. Postal service records list a Douglas M. Hughes as a rural carrier at the Riverview FL post office. From the Washington Post: U.S. Capitol Police said that a small gyrocopter with one occupant landed on the West Lawn of the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon. One person has been detained, Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said in an e-mail. Eyewitnesses in Capitol offices reported seeing police run toward the aircraft and take the pilot away. The small craft landed in the middle of the West Front Lawn, where the annual Christmas tree and Fourth of July concert stage are set up. via Gyrocopter lands on Capitol lawn; pilot is arrested – The Washington Post.
Doug Hughes
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