If you are a white former Capitol Hill police officer who interfered with a probe of a Jan 6th insurrectionist, you will get a sentence of home incarceration with a couple of years probation for your felony conviction.
I wish I could get a break like that if I ever committed a crime.
Former Capitol Police officer sentenced for interference with Jan. 6 probe
Michael Riley, who spent more than two decades on the force, expressed 'regret and remorse' for the effect his arrest had on himself and his family
You can already see where this is going from the expression of “regret and remorse.”
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a former Capitol Police officer to 120 days of home incarceration and two years of probation for a felony conviction tied to Facebook messages with a rioter who was in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia decided against a prison sentence for Michael A. Riley, a 25-year veteran of the Capitol Police, at a sentencing hearing that lasted more than an hour.
A jury in October found Riley guilty of one felony count of obstruction for interfering with a grand jury investigation. Prosecutors said he deleted hundreds of his messages with Capitol rioter Jacob Hiles once Hiles said he had told the FBI about their communications.
Jackson, in delivering the sentence, told Riley his actions were “contrary to law and contrary to your obligations as a Capitol Police officer.” But she also noted his loss of his career, lack of criminal record and serious health issues.
The federal prosecutors asked for 27 months in jail. But the judge decided not to even split the difference here. Jackson sentenced Riley to 120 days at home then two years of probation.
And what did Riley do to get himself in trouble in the first place?
The charges stemmed from messages Riley exchanged with Hiles, which started when Riley messaged Hiles to tell him to take down a public post on Facebook where Hiles said he entered the Capitol.
“Take down the part about being in the building they are currently investigating and everyone who was in the building is going to charged. Just looking out!” Riley wrote in that initial message.
At trial the prosecutors presented evidence that the two were avid fishermen and had exchanged hundreds of messages over the next few weeks.
Hiles was arrested in January 2021, and Riley deleted all his messages with him the next day, prosecutors said. Hiles eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of demonstrating in the Capitol and was sentenced to two years of probation, $500 in restitution and 60 hours of community service.
So a Capitol Hill Cop is telling one of the fuckin’ insurrectionists on how to avoid being arrested. This is after his fellow cops got the shit beat out of them and several died. And the Roll Call article left this little tid bit out:
After the Capitol attack, he messaged Jan. 6 rioter Jacob Hiles, a boat captain he knew from Facebook, telling Hiles he was "a capitol police officer who agrees with your political stance" and saying Hiles should “Take down the part about being in the building they are correctly investigating and everyone who was in the building is going to be charged. Just looking out!”
He’s a Trump supporting insurrectionist sympathisizing cop.
But once Riley lost his job, the scales miraculously fell from his eyes!
Riley apologized in court Thursday and said that he had lost a lot of friendships over his actions, which he said had had a severe impact on his family and his health.
"The burden is overwhelming," he said, adding that the actions of rioters on Jan. 6 have "no place in our society."
Riley said that what he did after the riot was "stupid and reckless" but that he "never thought I was breaking the law." He said he is remorseful for his actions every day
So he cried the blues in court about his loss of his job, career, and some of his friends didn’t like the idea of hanging with a guy who supported an insurrection. And it impacted his family and health! And guess what, it fuckin’ worked!
Judge Jackson was all “You should have known better and this is terrible...blah, blah, blah,” but Riley has obviously suffered enough because she took into account his “health issues.” Never mind there is no mention in the news articles of what his so called health issues are. But Jackson took pity on Riley and told him to stay at home for 120 days.
A former cop with at least two decades on the job who committed a felony.