Kevin Seefried, an Air Drive veteran from Delaware, was once sentenced to a 12 months of probation and a positive of $1,000 then pleading accountable to unlawfully wearing a Accomplice flag during the Capitol all through the January 6 riot. Seefried was once stuck on digital camera waving the flag, which is illegitimate on Capitol farmlands, as he and his son, Hunter, joined a mob of rioters who stormed the development. Along with the probation and positive, Seefried may be required to finish 100 hours of crowd carrier.
On Thursday, the person who waved that flag all through the Capitol Rebellion, drywall installer Kevin Seefried, was once sentenced to a few years in jail for his movements.
Pass judgement on Trevor McFadden referred to as ‘deeply offensive’ the ‘use of a Confederate flag … as a weapon against an African American officer’ – Eugene Goodman of the Capitol Police, who stood lonely within the face of rioters as They entered the development and had been chased via Seefried and others.
“Even setting aside the racist overtones, which you said you didn’t intend,” McFadden mentioned, it was once “appalling” {that a} image of secessionism was once worn to threaten an officer protective our procedure. democratic.
Seefried mentioned he didn’t intend to constitute white manage or riot, however merely a spirit of protest, bringing to Washington a Accomplice flag that were hung out of doors his house.
“I never meant to send a message of hate,” he mentioned in court docket. He apologized to officials, announcing he was once “deeply sorry for me on January 6, 2021”.
In sentencing papers, folk defenders Elizabeth Mullin and Eugene Ohm mentioned Seefried, who grew up in a penniless and abusive house, didn’t perceive the that means of the banner he was once maintaining.
“He was taught that the flag was a symbol of an idealized view of southern life and heritage,” they wrote. “With no education beyond ninth grade and even average intellectual ability, Mr. Seefried did not appreciate the complex, and for many, painful, history behind the Confederate battle flag.”
Seefried got here to Washington on Jan. 6 together with his spouse, 21-year-old son Hunter, who was once sentenced in December to 2 years in jail, and his son’s female friend. He and Hunter walked with the family from Trump’s Ellipse accent to the Capitol, official separation tactics with the 2 ladies alongside the best way.
“I wish I had stepped up and put a stop to this idea,” Stephanie Seefried wrote in a letter to the court docket prior to her son’s sentencing. “But I did not do it.”
She has since left him. “I lost my son and I lost my wife,” Kevin Seefried informed the court docket. “I made a terrible mistake and my family suffered.”
The daddy and son scaled a Capitol wall to a evenly secure touchdown at the Senate facet, the place rioters had been smashing home windows. They climbed thru, a few of the first to go into the development and confront the police within.
The elder Seefried time and again accident Goodman with the flag and chased him down a aviation of stairs, in line with trial testimony. Goodman mentioned Seefried refused to reduce and demanded to understand the place lawmakers had been. When Goodman was once joined via reinforcements, Seefried berated the officials for “protecting… liars and thieves.”
Ohm mentioned in court docket that Seefried was once simply repeating the phrases of the ones round him and didn’t know the place he was once within the Capitol or how the election procedure labored. Seefried plans to attraction his conviction for obstructing authentic procedure.
McFadden mentioned he approved Seefried’s regret was once “genuine”, however didn’t consider highbrow barriers had been related to against the law that didn’t contain “sophisticated issues”.
“You had every reason to know you shouldn’t be there,” McFadden mentioned.
Protection legal professionals mentioned Seefried had already suffered psychological anguish for his movements on January 6 and that as a rectal most cancers survivor who makes use of a colostomy bag, he was once at a better possibility of condition in jail.
Seefried’s daughter mentioned in a letter to the court docket that her father were wrongly categorised a racist. She has a biracial 3-year-old son, she says, who remains together with his grandfather a number of days a past.
“My son’s father has been to my dad’s house for Thanksgiving, Christmas and many other occasions and my dad has always treated him with respect and he adores his grandson more than life itself,” he mentioned. she writes.
Washington
Don’t miss interesting posts on Famousbio
