California man who used bear spray on Capitol police during Jan. 6 insurrection sentenced

A Northern California man who used bear spray on police officers and encouraged rioters with a megaphone during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection will serve 78 months — 6½ years — in prison, a federal judge decided Thursday.

Sean Michael McHugh will also have three years of supervised release, pay a $5,000 fine and pay $2,000 in restitution to the Architect of the Capitol, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates said Thursday. The 35-year-old must also pay $200 in court fees.

McHugh, a construction worker from Auburn, was convicted in April of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon and obstruction of an official proceeding. He has been held in custody since May 27, 2021; those approximately 27 months will offset some of the prison sentence.

Bates said McHugh regretted his actions, still he wasn’t convinced of the California man’s remorse.

McHugh “admits to a lack of judgment,” Bates said, “though not the magnitude of his actions.”

McHugh was one of the first to breach the police line at Capitol Hill’s West Plaza, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynnett Wagner said Thursday. There, he injured and impeded police officers by wrestling for control of a barricade, dispensing bear spray and helping use a large metal sign “like a battering ram.” The prosecutor said that McHugh intended to prevent Congress’ certification of the electoral college vote based on his social media posts in the days prior.

Apologizing, McHugh called Jan. 6 a “dark stain on our nation’s fabric” Thursday.

Had he known what Jan. 6 would turn into, McHugh claimed, “I would not have gone or put my mother’s well-being in danger.”

Officer sprayed by McHugh forced to retire

The bear spray injured and temporarily prevented a couple of officers from defending the Capitol. “He came prepared for violence,” Wagner said.

Later, McHugh bragged about it in a direct Facebook message saying he “got three of them down really really good.”

McHugh said Thursday the message was a moment of bravado — he said he was “trying to look cool.”

Seeing a fellow rioter get hit in the face with a rubber bullet and his mother in pain from apparently being struck led McHugh to dispense the bear spray to push people away, the defendant said. Bates countered that McHugh and his mother could have simply walked away from the situation.

McHugh did not enter the Capitol building, but he brought a megaphone and urged fellow rioters to push forward and hurled insults at police officers.

Bates called McHugh a “verbal leader of the confrontation.”

Two Capitol police officers wrote court statements. Capitol Police Inspector Tom Loyd sent a statement read by one of the prosecutors about the toll Jan. 6 took on his officers.

Retired Lt. Dennis Kelly, whom McHugh had sprayed, described Jan. 6 as a “physical and chemical attack.” He and his daughter, who he said had become a caretaker for him, were affected while decontaminating clothes from McHugh’s bear spray. Since then, Kelly has had two episodes of aphasia, a loss of ability to speak or comprehend speech. He said his family was the “unseen and unheard victims of that day.”

The emotional and physical toll Kelly took on Jan. 6 forced him into an early retirement.

“Mr. McHugh played a prominent role,” Kelly said, adding that McHugh was “intentionally trying to harm us.”

McHugh apologized to Kelly: “I made a mistake and you didn’t deserve that.”

Attorney says McHugh had ‘weak-mindedness’

McHugh’s attorney, Joseph Allen, said that McHugh’s “small and weak-mindedness” led him and others to take former President Donald Trump’s violent rhetoric and lies seriously.

“I don’t mean to be disparaging,” Allen said of McHugh and other rioters, but “there’s a difference between me” and them. Allen said people like McHugh were more susceptible to Trump’s lies about the 2020 election blasted on the 24/7 news cycle.

A third of Americans still believe Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

“Sean’s mind is not like the rest of us,” the lawyer said, adding McHugh was “infected” by political rhetoric.

McHugh was again riled up by Trump’s speech at the Ellipse before moving toward the Capitol, Allen said, where Congress was scheduled to certify Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

Allen claimed his client was sleep-deprived and used poor judgment that day, but “his worst actions were reactionary.” McHugh was not part of the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers and did not plot an insurrection with either group, he said. Rather, he went with the intention of exercising his First Amendment rights on Jan. 6.

McHugh brought bear spray, Allen said, in case he needed to defend himself from Antifa counter-protesters. Bates said that he did not believe that: McHugh brought the bear spray to use as a weapon, he said, and committed “a very serious assault on officers.”

By bragging about his participation online after Jan. 6, McHugh showed he lacked remorse, Wagner said. To this day, Wagner said, a fundraising site set up on his behalf claimed that other rioters were “patriots” and that he “did not hurt anyone,” indicating he did not feel remorseful.

Prosecutors wanted 10-year sentence

The fundraising effort was organized by Amy Hunt, McHugh’s fiancée, which was described as “help with funds for legal fees and bills.” McHugh said the effort had raised about $74,000 and that $50,000 had gone to paying Allen. He told the court that Hunt had spent an unknown amount on family emergencies and bills.

On Thursday, Allen argued that McHugh should receive a 70-month sentence that the probation office recommended.

Federal prosecutors had wanted the judge to sentence the Auburn construction worker to 10 years and three months in prison and higher fines. If it had been granted, the sentence would have been among the longest incarcerations connected to Jan. 6. Almost 1,100 people have been arrested for the Capitol riot. More than 300 have been sentenced to incarceration with former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio receiving the longest sentence — 22 years.

McHugh, one of four Sacramento-area defendants in the Jan. 6 riot, was the only one to remain in jail during trial, and the last to be sentenced.

Jorge Aaron Riley, an Army veteran from Sacramento, was sentenced to 18 months on Wednesday. Valerie Elaine Ehrke of Arbuckle received probation. Tommy Frederick Allan of Rocklin is serving a 21-month sentence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.

Bates said he hopes that McHugh can one day rejoin as a productive member of society. He hopes his sentence will “afford deterrents for him and others.”

Said Bates, “The events of Jan. 6 were a very serious threat to our democratic values and institutions.”