Three fugitives from Polk County, charged in Jan. 6 US Capitol riot, are captured by FBI

On the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, the FBI captured three former Polk County residents who had been fugitives: siblings Jonathan and Olivia Pollock and their friend, Joseph Daniel Hutchinson III.

The FBI executed three federal arrest warrants early Saturday morning at a ranch in Groveland, the agency said in a brief news release. The FBI said it was offering no further details about their capture at this time.

The three are scheduled to appear in federal court in Ocala on Monday, the release said.

The Pollocks and Hutchinson traveled to Washington D.C., along with at least two others from Polk County, to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally organized by former President Donald Trump and his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. During the event at the Ellipse, Trump repeated his false claims that he had actually won the 2020 presidential election and urged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol and pressure members of Congress not to certify Joe Biden’s election as president.

Members of both houses were meeting that day to validate the Electoral College results from each state.

Followers of Trump fought through lines of police officers and broke into the Capitol, forcing members of Congress to flee their chambers for hours. Congress eventually returned and certified Biden’s election.

About 140 police officers were injured in the attack, and the rioters caused more than $1.5 million in damage to the Capitol building, government reports indicate.

Grand juries indicted the Pollocks and Hutchinson months after the attack. All three faced charges that included assaulting, resisting or impeding law-enforcement officers; violent entry; and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Jonathan Pollock, now 24, was the first to become a fugitive. He had fled by the time FBI agents executed arrest warrants at his family’s property in the Kathleen area, north of Lakeland, early on June 30, 2021. Olivia Pollock, now 33, was present and taken into custody.

Agents also arrested Hutchinson, a former Lakeland resident who had moved to Georgia after the attack on the Capitol. Hutchinson, now 27, had previously worked in a North Lakeland gun store operated by Gabe Pollock, Olivia and Jonathan’s brother, court records indicate.

Both Olivia Pollock and Hutchinson were released on bond while awaiting trial. In March 2023, just days before both were scheduled to appear at trials in Washington, D.C., they disabled their ankle GPS monitors, the Department of Justice said. A judge issued a bench warrant for them, and the FBI added the pair to their list of Jan. 6 fugitives.

The FBI first issued a “wanted” poster for Jonathan Pollock in 2021, advising that he should be considered armed and dangerous. The agency 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.”

The FBI also warned on posters that Olivia Pollock and Hutchinson should be considered armed and dangerous.

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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, her cousin, Joshua Doolin, Hutchinson and their friend Michael Perkins of Plant City 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.”

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.

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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.”

Doolin was convicted in March on multiple charges and is serving an 18-month prison sentence. Perkins was sentenced to 48 months in prison.

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: Three Jan. 6 fugitives from Polk captured by FBI in Groveland