Prosecutor: Ex-North Florida prison guard deserves 90 days in jail for role in Capitol riot

Steve Patterson, Florida Times-Union
·2 min read
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Prosecutors said Jonathan Carlton was part of this picture of rioters entering the U.S. Capitol after getting past police.
Prosecutors said Jonathan Carlton was part of this picture of rioters entering the U.S. Capitol after getting past police.

A fired North Florida prison guard deserves three months behinds bars for taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, prosecutors have told a federal judge.

Jonathan Daniel Carlton’s career at the Florida Department of Corrections “renders his conduct on January 6 all the more troubling,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Veldhuis argued in a June 22 sentencing memo that included photos of the Union County man in a sea of rioters outside the Capitol.

“As a corrections officer, Carlton would be well aware of the danger of a large mob against vastly outnumbered police officers. Moreover, he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution,” Veldhuis told U.S. District Senior Judge Thomas F. Hogan. “As a law enforcement officer, Carlton held a special position of trust that he disregarded not only on January 6, but in the coming weeks when he lied to the FBI and hindered their investigation.”

The prosecutor also asked for Carlton to be placed on three years of probation after the jail time was served.

Carlton, 46, pleaded guilty in March to a single misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building as part of a plea bargain that got other charges dropped.

This photo of Jonathan Daniel Carlton holding a souvenir newspaper front was included in an FBI report called a statement of facts that was filed in federal court in Washington. The report said the image came from Bradley Weeks' cell phone.
This photo of Jonathan Daniel Carlton holding a souvenir newspaper front was included in an FBI report called a statement of facts that was filed in federal court in Washington. The report said the image came from Bradley Weeks' cell phone.

The maximum sentence for parading is six months in jail, but Carlton’s attorney argued this month for probation and community service.

The conviction had already led to Carlton being fired from Union Correctional Institution in Raiford and he would lose the subsidized home he’d had as a corrections officer, defense attorney Richard Landes told the judge.

But the prosecutor argued that Carlton showed “extreme disrespect for the law” by being part of a crowd that overran the Capitol despite chemical irritants like tear gas being released.

“Law enforcement officers were overwhelmed, outnumbered, and in many cases, in serious danger,” Veldhuis wrote on behalf of the U.S. Attorneys Office. “Even after feeling the effects of lingering tear gas on his face, Carlton was not deterred from entering the Capitol. The rule of law was not only disrespected; it was under attack that day.”

Prosecutors included this image from the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, which highlights Jonathan Carlton's location in an area where tear gas was spreading, in a sentencing memo filed this month in Washington.
Prosecutors included this image from the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, which highlights Jonathan Carlton's location in an area where tear gas was spreading, in a sentencing memo filed this month in Washington.

The memo said more than 100 police officers were injured during the riot, which for a few hours stopped Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election victory over former President Donald Trump.

While Landes had argued jail time would be inappropriate because a former corrections officer like Carlton would have to be isolated for his safety, Veldhuis told the judge the federal Bureau of Prisons “can place him in an appropriately secure facility.”

Carlton’s background in corrections “should be viewed as an aggravating factor warranting a more serious sentence,” the prosecutor argued.

Carlton is scheduled to be sentenced June 29.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Feds: Lock up fired North Florida prison guard for role in Capitol riot