money First Iowan sentenced in January 6 riot at US Capitol gets 30 days in prison; son sentenced to four months
A St. Ansgar man who broke through a police line to let rioters into the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot will serve 30 days in prison after entering a guilty plea.
Daryl Johnson, 51, was at the Capitol with his son Daniel Johnson of Austin, Minnesota. He is one of eight Iowans so far to face charges related to the riot, and was the first to plead guilty and be sentenced. His son also was sentenced Wednesday before the Washington, D.C., federal judge, and received four months in prison.
According to prosecutors, the two entered the Capitol through a shattered window and stayed in the building for nearly half an hour. At one point, the two were among a group of rioters who rushed a line of officers keeping another door to the building shut, forcing them aside and letting more members of the mob into the building.
Both father and son were charged with misdemeanors for disorderly conduct and entering a restricted building as well as civil disorder, a felony. Both pleaded guilty in January to the felony civil disorder charge.
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Prior to sentencing, Daryl Johnson addressed federal Judge Dabney Friedrich and said he deeply regrets the fear and trauma inflicted on police, legislators and Capitol complex employees during the riot.
"For me to be part of something that caused that pain and anguish that they’re going to have to deal with really causes me heartbreak, and I’m really truly sorry," he said. "If it were possible to go to each person affected and ask their forgiveness and tell them how sorry I am, I would do it in a heartbeat."
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Court filings leading up to Wednesday's sentencing shed new light on what drew the elder Johnson to the Capitol. His attorney wrote that Johnson owns nearly a dozen businesses, mostly in the Twin Cities metro in Minnesota, including laundromats, a tanning salon and a car wash. During the protests and riots following the death of George Floyd in May 2020, two of his businesses were severely damaged.
"No one was prosecuted, no one offered him any recourse, much less assistance," attorney Christopher Davis wrote. "He came to Washington to have his voice heard. He came to protest being ignored. And the former president had the appearance of being responsive to his complaints. To his regret, he became caught up in the moment."
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In a written statement filed before the hearing, Johnson described the financial troubles he faced in 2020 and said he had traveled to Washington to make his voice heard, only to find himself following along in a situation that got out of hand. In court Wednesday, he said he looks back and sees that the upheavals of 2020 had left him frustrated and emotional.
"The whole world seemed to be upside down," he said. "Wrong was called right, or it was excused, and it just seemed to me the whole world went a bit crazy."
With no criminal history for Johnson, he faced a likely recommended sentence ranging from probation to six months in prison, while his son faced a sentencing range of four to 10 months. For the father, Davis urged the court to choose probation, saying that Johnson was "a follower, not a leader" of the attack.
"Mr. Johnson is a devoted family man, a good neighbor, and a good citizen," he wrote. "There is no need to protect the public from further crimes by him, nor is there any need to rehabilitate him."
Prosecutors asked the court to impose a three-month prison term, noting not just Johnson's effort to push aside police guarding the door inside the Capitol, but his comments afterward on social media.
On Jan. 7, the day after the attack, Johnson posted on Facebook that "It will be hangings on the front lawn of the capital" if Trump supporters decide to throw out elected legislators. In other posts and messages, he suggested a new civil war was likely, and wrote “Bring it on Biden! I have no problem dying in a pool of empty shell casing.”
"Although the defendant has now expressed remorse, Johnson charged police officers and engaged in violence on January 6," prosecutor Samuel Dalke wrote. "In addition, his social media statements after January 6 were those of a man girding for another battle."
Judge: 'grave risk of harm' to officers during melee
Friedrich, the judge in the case, criticized prosecutors for bringing felony charges against the Johnsons when similar defendants, including others involved in breaching the same door, were charged with misdemeanors, but said she believes the felony charge was merited by their actions.
"There’s no question what the intent of the mob was," Friedrich said. "There’s no question they knew there were officers present protecting those doors, and they put those officers at grave risk of harm."
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Friedrich said she would have imposed a longer sentence against Daryl Johnson but for his "incredibly exemplary" personal history, but said the pair's conduct was more serious than most of the Jan. 6 cases she has handled and that she could not justify a non-custodial sentence.
Both Johnsons also were ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution to offset damage inflicted to the Capitol complex, and Daryl Johnson will pay an additional $2,000 fine.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: US Capitol riot charges result in 30-day sentence for Iowa man, son
