On third anniversary of Jan. 6 riot, two from Polk went to prison, three remain fugitives

Three years after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, current and former Polk County residents are enduring a range of consequences.

Two have been judged guilty and sentenced to prison. One still awaits trial, having so far failed in attempts to have his charges dismissed. And three have fled rather than face trials, making them fugitives sought by the FBI.

Scores of supporters of former President Donald Trump clashed with police outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and some broke into the building, disrupting the work of Congress as it met to ratify each state’s Electoral College votes from the 2020 election. After being forced to flee their chambers, members of Congress returned to confirm the election of Joe Biden as president.

More than 1,200 people had been charged with crimes related to the U.S. Capitol breach as of Dec. 6, the Department of Justice reported. Florida reportedly had the highest number of residents indicted, with 95 defendants arrested in the state, according to the federal agency’s database.

The attack directly and indirectly resulted in seven deaths, according to a U.S. Senate report, including those of Capitol Police officers. Rioters injured dozens of law-enforcement officers and caused more than $1.5 million in damage to the Capitol building, government reports indicate.

On its page labeled “U.S. Capitol Violence,” the Department of Justice lists six people as wanted by the FBI on Jan. 6 charges, and half of them are former residents of Polk County: siblings Jonathan and Olivia Pollock and their friend, Joseph Daniel Hutchinson III.

Polk City resident Joshua Doolin, a cousin of the Pollocks, was found guilty in a bench trial in March on charges of civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds and theft of government property.

U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols sentenced Doolin in August to 18 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release. Doolin, who turns 26 on Saturday, is incarcerated at a low-security federal prison in Sumter County with a scheduled release date of Jan. 1, 2025.

Corinne Montoni, formerly of Lakeland, was the first from Polk County arrested on charges related to the U.S. Capitol breach, in March 2021. She is the only one of the six accused of entering the Capitol building.

Montoni accepted a deal in June 2023 to plead guilty to civil disorder, a felony, in exchange for having other felony charges dropped. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the District of Columbia sentenced Montoni to 30 days in prison followed by 24 months of supervised release.

Montoni was released from prison on Dec. 6, according to federal records.

Brian Boele of Lakeland was indicted in June 2022 on a felony charge of civil disorder and three related misdemeanor offenses for his actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Boele, 60, moved from Tampa to Lakeland before his arrest was announced. He is free on bond while awaiting trial.

Boele’s lawyer submitted a 28-page motion last year arguing that all charges against him should be dropped, but U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon of the District of Columbia denied the motion in September. Boele is scheduled for a status conference on Feb. 9.

Violent acts caught on video

The three former Polk County residents now listed as fugitives after their indictments for alleged Jan. 6 crimes were part of a group that traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest Biden’s election, according to federal prosecutors.

Jonathan and Olivia Pollock and Hutchinson joined a contingent from the Kathleen area who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally organized by Trump and his supporters, court documents show. The group included their father, Ben Pollock (who has not been charged), Doolin and a friend, Michael Perkins of Plant City.

Hutchinson, now 27, worked in a North Lakeland gun store operated by Gabe Pollock, Olivia and Jonathan’s brother, court records indicate. The group moved together outside the Capitol, according to court records.

None in the group are accused of entering the Capitol building on Jan. 6. But prosecutors allege that the indicted five all advanced to an exterior terrace, with some engaging in violent confrontations with police officers who were defending the building.

Prosecutors released copies of electronic messages in which Doolin allegedly told his father he planned to take a semi-automatic rifle to Washington, D.C. — though he apparently did not do so — and expressed his intent to “storm” the Capitol. An arrest affidavit quoted a text exchange in which Doolin, who turned 23 that day, allegedly wrote that he “wouldn’t mind dying with my family storming the capital on my birthday!”

Arrest affidavits and court records contain photos, videos and descriptions of Jonathan Pollock, now 24, and Hutchinson allegedly attacking officers outside the Capitol. Cameras worn by officers at the scene captured many of the photos and videos.

Images show a bearded man, identified by the FBI as Jonathan Pollock, wearing camouflage attire and a ballistic plate-carrier vest with “distinctive military morale patches,” as well as green kneepads and brown tactical gloves with molded plastic knuckles. Photos and video depict the man fighting with officers who sought to keep a swarm of rioters from approaching the Capitol.

In one video clip, the man rushes out of a crowd to tackle an officer. After they grapple on the ground, the bearded man jumps to his feet and throws punches at two officers before squeezing his hands around the neck of another fallen officer. The man later approaches an officer from behind, grasps him by the shoulders and shoves him toward the ground.

In other clips, the man in camouflage can be seen yanking a plastic riot shield away from an officer and then using it as a weapon to charge at and strike other officers. Having reached the Upper West Terrace, Pollock climbed a set of bleachers, grabbed an officer by the shoulders and tried to throw him over a metal railing to the floor of the terrace below, according to an arrest affidavit.

A photo shows the man identified as Pollock standing near the entrance to the Capitol, holding an American flag and raising one arm, as if urging other rioters toward the building. Video captured Pollock calling out, “We didn’t come this far just to push back the cops,” the arrest affidavit says.

Pollock charged to the mouth of a tunnel at the entrance to the Capitol on the Lower West Terrace, prosecutors allege. As other rioters threw objects at a line of police officers in the tunnel, Pollock slammed and pushed a riot shield into the officers, pinning their shields and preventing them from defending against the attacks, the affidavit says.

Photos and video show Hutchinson outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, a baseball cap and a ballistic plate-carrier vest with a patch on the front identical to one of the patches Jonathan Pollock wore, an arrest affidavit says.

A court filing from April 2022 described Hutchinson’s conduct at the U.S. Capitol as “particularly egregious.” It said that in less than 30 minutes, “he participated in four separate assaults on law enforcement officers, several in close coordination with Jonathan Pollock.”

'Taking our Capitol back'

Though Doolin was not charged with assaulting officers, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo: “Through his actions, Doolin showed that he was not a passive observer of the attack on the Capitol, but rather an excited participant, who strove to be at the front and center of the action. Although Doolin did not personally touch the police officers in the tunnel, he was part of a mob that did, and himself aided the rioters that did make direct contact.”

Doolin recorded himself saying, “We’re taking our Capitol back, baby,” according to prosecutors. While outside the Capitol, he obtained zip ties, a cannister of crowd-control spray and a U.S. Capitol Police officer’s riot shield, court documents indicate.

Doolin brought the shield back to Polk County as a souvenir, according to a sentencing memo, where he and friends signed it and displayed it at the Pollocks’ house.

In a court filing from April 2022, a prosecutor wrote that the group’s actions on Jan. 6 “were extremely dangerous,” alleging that they “assaulted officers, broke through barricades, carried or acquired weapons and restraint devices, and planned and coordinated their actions.”

The motion described the defendants as “in a different category of dangerousness than those who cheered on the violence or entered the Capitol after others cleared the way.”

In a sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Benet J. Kearney wrote that Doolin had shown an “utter lack of remorse” and had repeatedly lied about his actions, claiming he did not know the riot shield belonged to the police even though it was stamped with an official emblem and the words “United States Capitol Police.”

Doolin’s lawyer submitted a memo asking that he be sentenced only to home detention and community service. The defense memo included a video with statements from Doolin, his wife, his mother, his employer and a friend.

Perkins was found guilty on multiple charges at his trial in March and sentenced to 48 months in prison. He is scheduled for release on Aug. 29, 2026.

Polk trio wanted by FBI

A grand jury indicted Jonathan Pollock on a variety of charges, among them assaulting, resisting or impeding law-enforcement officers; violent entry; and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. The charges carry maximum penalties of more than 30 years in prison.

Pollock was the first of the group to be labeled a fugitive, fleeing before FBI agents arrived at his family’s property in the Kathleen area on June 30, 2021. Agents that day arrested Olivia Pollock, now 33, who had been indicted by a grand jury on felony charges that include assaulting, resisting or impeding law-enforcement officers; violent entry; and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

A grand jury indicted Hutchinson on charges similar to those facing the Pollock siblings.

The FBI first issued a “wanted” poster for Jonathan Pollock in 2021, advising that he should be considered armed and dangerous. The agency has offered a reward of up to $30,000 for information leading to Pollock’s arrest and conviction.

“Pollock is believed to have friends and family throughout central and north Florida, as well as in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas,” the poster reads. “He is a welder and ironworker, by trade, and may be working in this, or similar construction jobs.”

In a motion filed in April 2022, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Moeder implied that Jonathan Pollock had received help in eluding capture by the FBI. Moeder asked a judge to block any communications among Olivia Pollock, Doolin, Hutchinson and Perkins without a lawyer present, writing that Pollock’s ability to evade capture for more than nine months “suggests that he has received assistance from those close to him.”

Olivia Pollock and Hutchinson, who had been free on pretrial release, disabled the ankle monitors that they were required to wear as part of their release on bond and fled days before their scheduled trials in March 2023, prosecutors reported. Hutchinson had been living in Georgia since before his arrest in 2021.

'It's a political move': Relatives defend Lakeland siblings accused in U.S. Capitol riot

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued bench warrants for Pollock and Hutchinson after the court’s pretrial services division received notifications that both had either tampered with or removed their GPS monitors. The FBI has issued wanted posters for both, warning that they should be considered armed and dangerous.

Tribute to rioters who died

Family members of the Pollocks and Doolin declined or did not respond to recent interview requests. At the Pollock family’s property in the Kathleen area, “No trespassing” signs have been posted since a Ledger reporter and photographer visited after Olivia Pollock became a fugitive last year.

A sign at the front of the property has remained in place since before the 2020 election. Painted in red, white and blue, it declares “Trump 2020” and “Keep America Great.” It states, “We stand for Freedom and our Flag” and “We only kneel for Almighty GOD.”

A smaller sign reading "FREE THE POLITICAL PRISONERS" was affixed to the Trump sign after the indictments of Jonathan and Olivia Pollock, but it was no longer present on a recent day.

At some point in the past year, the family installed a monument beside the sign. A rock sits upon a small pedestal, its surface engraved with a Christian cross, an image of an eagle and the statement, “In honor of the ones who lost their lives on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Listed are four names — Ashli Babbitt, Benjamin Phillips, Roseanne Boyland and Kevin Greeson — followed by the biblical verse John 8:32, “The truth shall make you free.” Below that is the declaration, “You will not be forgotten!”

Babbitt, a California woman, joined a mob of protesters who breached the Capitol and advanced to the doors of the House Speaker's Lobby, adjacent to the House chambers. After another rioter smashed a glass window beside the doors, Babbitt began to climb through the shattered window and Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd shot her in the left shoulder.

Babbitt, 35, was taken to a local hospital, where she later died.

The other three names listed on the rock at the Pollock property are Trump supporters who died during the riot. A medical examiner ruled that Phillips and Greeson died of heart attacks and Boyland died from acute amphetamine intoxication.

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was stationed inside the Capitol and reportedly injured while engaging with rioters, died after returning to his division office. A medical examiner found that Sicknick suffered two strokes nearly eight hours after being sprayed with a chemical irritant during the riot and ruled that he died of natural causes, the Washington Post reported.

Four other police officers died by suicide within months of the Jan. 6 attack.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Jan. 6 anniversary: 2 from Polk sent to prison, 3 remain fugitives