A federal judge sentenced a Texas couple to prison for their alleged role in the January 6, 2021, event at the U.S. Capitol. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the couple assaulted law enforcement.
The couple, however, Mark and Jalise Middleton, said they were praying outside the Capitol when police began to push crowds back forcibly. The Middletons said they were assaulted by police, leading them to respond in self-defense.
Mark Middleton was sentenced to 30 months in prison, while Jalise Middleton was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
“A federal jury previously convicted the Middletons of two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, as well as civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding,” a DOJ press release reads. “In addition to the felonies, the Middletons were convicted of misdemeanor offenses of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in the Capitol grounds or building, and act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or building.”
A felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding was dismissed following the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Fischer v. United States, where the Court decided that January 6 defendants could not be charged under Section 1512(c)(2) of U.S. code.
Court documents describe the Middletons standing peacefully, “huddled together in prayer,” until they were “physically struck by the bike racks purposefully pushed into them by the police.”
The documents share images of the event.
“[E]vidence showed that the Middletons never attacked the police or even touched them before the police pushed bike racks into them and others near them. Only after the police engaged in this behavior did the Middletons have any physical contact with the police whatsoever,” according to the documents. “And that contact did not consist of any punching, shoving, or any other action intended to injure any officer.”
The sentencing memo, however, claims Mark Middleton “heckled police officers.”
“Together, the Middletons then threw their bodies into the barricades. When officers tried to restore the barricades and ordered them to get back, both the Middletons assaulted two officers,” the memo says. “Mark Middleton assaulted one of the officers with a flagpole and Jalise Middleton scratched the face of the other officer, causing injury.”
The DOJ’s press release added that more than 1,532 individuals have been charged for crimes relating to January 6, 2021.
