Gyrocopter pilot who landed on Capitol lawn sentenced to 4 months in prison

Gyrocopter pilot who landed on Capitol lawn sentenced to 4 months in prison

The Florida man who landed a gyrocopter on the breadth of the U.S. Capitol a year ago to beef the bribery of money in backroom was bedevilled Thursday to four months in prison.

Douglas Hughes, 62, a above postal worker, pleaded accusable in November to aeriform afterwards an airman’s certificate. He adapted the one-person helicopter to be abundant abundant and biking far abundant to crave a pilot’s license. The abomination carries a best amends of three years in bastille and a $250,000 fine, but prosecutors agreed as allotment of the appeal accord to ask for no added than a 10-month sentence.

U.S. District Court Adjudicator Colleen Kollar-Kotelly scolded Hughes for declining to accept how alarming his flight was, and for not compassionate how actively Washington association yield national-security apropos afterwards the agitator attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"I don't anticipate you acknowledge how alarming your conduct was. If you don't reside here, you ability not apperceive how actively we yield this," she said, apropos to civic aegis concerns.

Before the book was handed down, Hughes said he was remorseful, and apologized to police, tourists who were afraid and his family. But he said he had no abjure for the flight bringing absorption to the bribery of money in politics.

"It is a catechism of justice," said Hughes, whose attorneys compared his civilian defiance to Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hughes' aegis lawyers, federal accessible apostle Tony Afar and Bethesda advocate Mark Goldstone, argued in a sentencing announcement that he adapted no added bastille time above the one day served if he was arrested because he didn't accretion alone from the adventure and didn't aching anybody.

"Rather than acting selfishly, Mr. Hughes's conduct was an altruistic act that was done in adjustment to beforehand the absorption of the all-inclusive majority of humans residing in the United States," the attorneys said, calling the "daring" flight "an amazing act of aeriform civilian disobedience."

Dozens of humans wrote belletrist to the adjudicator advancement charity for Hughes, including Mark Dimondstein, admiral of the American Postal Workers Union. The aegis aswell included an op-ed in The Hill bi-weekly from two above associates of Congress, Connie Morella and Dan Glickman, who alleged the flight a advised act of civilian disobedience.

But the adjudicator didn't accede with the civil-rights comparisons. Boston Tea Party participants dumped tea. Freedom Riders, and King and Parks, protested absolute behavior for accessible accommodations, she said. But Hughes bankrupt aerodynamics laws accepting annihilation to do with attack finance, she said.

"He's not in that league," Kollar-Kotelly said. "What he did, which he admits, was a publicity stunt."

Prosecutors had requested a 10-month book followed by a year of supervised release, forth with access of the aircraft. But Kollar-Kotelly gave Hughes 120 canicule in bastille followed by a year of supervised probation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tejpal Chawla and Michael Friedman said in a accounting altercation that "this was not a bazaar act performed by accomplished professionals in a controlled setting." Hughes "craved attention" while banishment a lockdown at the U.S. Capitol and aeriform aural 0.7 afar of a Delta Air Lines agile abrogation Reagan Civic Airport, Chawla said.

"The actor about played Russian roulette with himself and the community," Chawla said. "The crisis he acquired is inexcusable."

Hughes, who lives abreast Tampa, Fla., fabricated his flight from Gettysburg, Pa., to draw absorption to the streams of money fueling U.S. elections. He adapted the aircraft with containers accustomed belletrist to every affiliate of Congress and a 10-gallon gas catchbasin rather than the accepted 5 gallons. He aswell placed a U.S. Postal Service logo on the aircraft.

Hughes was apparent aeriform hundreds of anxiety off the arena forth the Civic Mall from the Washington Monument afore landing on the Capitol’s West Front lawn, badge said. The breadth is a no-fly zone.

The case aloft national-security apropos because of how abutting Hughes flew to the White House and added federal monuments. The Federal Aerodynamics Administration was able to ascertain the aircraft on radar, but it was baby abundant and apathetic abundant that alarm would commonly be filtered to avoid it as a accessible bird or added baby object.

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