Some Chattanooga-area residents convicted of federal crimes in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol may soon be pardoned along with many others by President-elect Donald Trump.
Joseph Lino “Jose” Padilla, 44, of Cleveland, Tennessee, was sentenced in September 2023 to 6.5 years in prison for assault and other crimes for pushing against barricades and hurling a flagpole at a police officer’s head during the breach.
A second Cleveland man, Chad Bannister Hedgcock, pleaded guilty in October to disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, picketing or demonstrating in a Capitol building.
William Frederick Beals II, of Ringgold, was sentenced in September to 36 months of probation for entering and remaining in a restricted building and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building.
Trump confirmed in a November Time magazine interview he plans to pardon most of the Jan. 6 defendants, who breached the Capitol in his name in protest of his 2020 reelection loss. He said the vast majority of them have suffered gravely and should not be in jail, according to Time.