Jan. 6 Defendant Sentenced To 24 Months' Probation With 30 Days Home Detention

Authored by Patricia Tolson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A Jan. 6 protester who spent 18 seconds inside the Capitol building during the protests has been sentenced to 24 months of probation with 30 days of home detention.

Angelo Pacheco, a 24-year-old man from Kansas City, will also have to pay $500 restitution for damages done to the Capitol building that day, which the federal government says totaled more than $2.73 million, according to an April 8, 2022, court filing.

Mr. Pacheco’s sentencing was held before Judge Randolph D. Moss on Jan. 31 via video conference in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

He faced a maximum sentence of six months in jail, a $5,000 fine, and five years of probation.

According to the Jan. 6, 2021, criminal complaint, Mr. Pacheco was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol Building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol Building.

As stated in the July 14, 2023 Statement of Facts, “The FBI received a tip from a confidential human source (CHS)” that Mr. Pacheco “was on the U.S. Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021.”

While the informant did not know Mr. Pacheco, the CHS “identified him by comparing images on his Facebook and Instagram pages with open-source photos from January 6, 2021.”

Based on this information, the special agent investigating the case conducted database checks for “Angelo J. Pacheco,” later identifying him as a resident of Kansas City, Missouri. The special agent then compared Mr. Pacheco’s driver’s license photo to the one provided by the unidentified informant and confirmed it was the same individual.

Additional photos showed Mr. Pacheco standing on the scaffolding outside of the Capitol building.

A review of Capitol Building CCV footage from Jan. 6, 2022, showed him standing at the doorway of the upper west terrace of the Capitol building, entering briefly, “approximately six seconds,” before turning around and exiting through the same door.

During an initial interview at his home on Sept. 29, 2022, Mr. Pacheco admitted being at the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021, but told investigators he didn’t remember going inside. During a second interview at Mr. Pacheco’s attorney’s office on March 17, 2023, investigators showed him six images taken from the CCTV footage showing him entering the Capitol for about six seconds. It was then that he admitted going inside briefly.

Based on this evidence, the special agent in charge of the investigation submitted “that there is probable cause to believe that PACHECO violated 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(1) and (2), which makes it a crime to (1) knowingly enter or remain in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do; and (2) knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions, engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct in, or within such proximity to, any restricted building or grounds when, or so that, such conduct, in fact, impedes or disrupts the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions; or attempt or conspire to do so.”

The special agent further submitted that “there is also probable cause to believe that PACHECO violated 40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(D) and (G), which makes it a crime to willfully and knowingly (D) utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress; and (G) parade, demonstrate, or picket in any of the Capitol Buildings.”