Name: The Ridgefield man captured on an infamous U.S. Capitol riot video lived an innocuous life in Connecticut; Patrick Edward McCaughey faces years in jail
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The Ridgefield man captured on an infamous U.S. Capitol riot video lived an innocuous life in Connecticut; Patrick Edward McCaughey faces years in jail

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AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantJan 24, 2021 at 6:00 amIn spite of a distinctive name, Patrick Edward McCaughey III, lived a rather undistinguished life, at least until Jan. 6 when a video recording of him appearing to batter and bloody one of the police officers protecting the U.S. Capitol from rioters was broadcast across the internet and around the world.Federal agents followed the video to his mother’s house on the New York border in Ridgefield, one of Connecticut’s most affluent, if not the most affluent places. He was arrested, hauled into court in chains and portrayed as an ugly face of what the government calls a right-wing insurrection bent on overturning an election. He was denied bail, ordered into jail to await trial and told, at age 23, that the absolute best outcome he can hope for is more than five-years in prison.AdvertisementMeanwhile, neighbors and friends in Ridgefield are trying to remember who he is.Everett Stillwell, who lives on the street where McCaughey lived with his mother, heard about the arrest, like just about everyone else in Ridgefield. He called it “surprising.” Then he paused to think for a moment about who McCaughey is.Advertisement“He’s a good kid,” Stillman said. “He’s quiet.”Ryan Dunn, the record-setting Ridgefield High School quarterback with whom McCaughey played during a brief time on the football team, needed to see a photograph in order to recall his teammate.“For the short time he was on the team, he did not make an impact,” Dunn said. “In fact, I don’t think he was ever on the field at an important moment, if you know what I mean. He wasn’t a leader. He was the kind of guy who kept to himself. He wasn’t one of the guys who connected with the other guys on the team.“Some of us have stayed in touch and were trading news articles after we heard the guy arrested was supposed to be on the team. Someone had to show me a photograph before I even remembered him.”At his arraignment on Wednesday evening in White Plains, N.Y., just over the state border from Ridgefield, a federal prosecutor persuaded a judge that McCaughey is dangerous and a threat to public safety, that he “struck at the heart of American democracy, the U.S. Capitol, both literally and figuratively, as part of a mob that was apparently attempting to overturn a legitimate election.”Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Gianforti directed the court’s attention to 2 1/2 minutes of the 21 minute video that shows apparently angry and organized rioters wielding stolen police riot shields and batons, trying to bull past a police cordon and through an entrance on the Capitol’s west side. The short segment shows McCaughey at the front of the mob, battering Washington metropolitan police officer Daniel Hodges with a shield and immobilizing him against the entrance.“This video is crystal clear,” Gianforti said. “You can see the defendant’s face. You can see officer Hodges’ face as he is screaming out in agony as scores of rioters are pushing into him. Their weight is behind the defendant, and it is just crushing into him and he is screaming. And because his arms are pinned to his sides, another rioter who is next to Mr. McCaughey starts grabbing at this officer’s face — he is wearing sort of a mask or gas mask — and you can see him just rip this thing off the officer’s face, incredibly violently, as he is screaming in pain. And once the mask comes off you can see that his mouth has been bloodied. He has been injured.”“Frankly the officer’s fear and just the frenzy of that moment are palpable from this video,” Gianforti said in court. “And you can see him not only striking and pushing officer Hodges, but other officers along this front line, which is desperately trying to keep this mob from breaching the Capitol.”AdvertisementMcCaughey’s arrest is his first brush with the law, and the multiple video recordings that have surfaced of his movement among Capitol rioters makes a conviction a near certainty.He was born in California and lived in the Bay Area with his parents until age 6, when the family moved to Ridgefield. He attended Ridgefield public schools — where teachers and administrators will not discuss him — and graduated from Ridgefield High School. McCaughey made the honor role “several years” while in high school, his lawyer said. He is said to have had a facility for languages, in particular Latin and German. He has dual citizenship in Germany, which he visited on a high school field trip.Ridgefield is Connecticut’s most affluent town by some calculations. Median income among 8,000 citizens is about $130,000 and median property value is about $666,000. There are a lot of Republicans in town, including McCaughey, his father and some of the young men with whom McCaughey played high school football.After high school, McCaughey went to work for his father, who is a licensed pilot, boat owner, real estate broker and building contractor, specializing in single family homes. McCaughey was arrested at a home owned by his father just over the border from Ridgefield in South Salem, N.Y., where he was quarantining as a COVID-19 precaution after his trip to the Capitol. In some of the videos that capture McCaughey, he is unmasked.After quarantine, he planned to return to his mother’s home, where he lived with her, his sister and his sister’s boyfriend, according to disclosures in court by his federal public defender, Jason Ser. His father, with whom McCaughey is said to be in regular contact, lives nearby in New Canaan.In spite of his father’s offer of employment, Ser said he hasn’t worked for more than a year.Advertisement“As far as employment goes, Mr. McCaughey, unfortunately, has been affected like many others by the COVID pandemic,” Ser said in court in an unsuccessful attempt to arrange release on bond. “He has been unemployed since late 2019. He relies on his mother for support and his father. As I mentioned he had been prior to that as carpenter, handy man, call it what you will. But he has worked for his father since his late teenaged years.”“He has a couple of thousand dollars to his name in savings,” Ser said. “He has always lived with his parents and continues to rely on them for support.”Ser argued that the government is making McCaughey an example in an effort to short circuit what some in politics are calling right wing terror. Ser said McCaughey is being prosecuted based on fewer that two minutes of video, while other video evidence — some referenced in the government’s criminal complaint — suggests he tried to help the officer he is accused of assaulting.“I think the government focus on some of the events certainly is an effort to try to create an appearance that he is violent and maniacal and perhaps even cold hearted,” Ser argued in court. “But parts of the complaint certainly paint a different picture. ”DailyWe're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. &gt; Ser referred specifically to video that captures McCaughey trying to get the attention of a police officer behind Hodges, apparently so Hodges can be moved to the rear of the police line and away from the crush of rioters. Ser said McCaughey can be heard saying, “He’s hurt. He’s hurt. Let him back.” Eventually, Ser said McCaughey gets the officer’s attention and Hodges is moved to safety.The prosecution dismissed the gesture.AdvertisementOnce Hodges was removed, Gianforti said, McCaughey used his stolen riot shield to fight against other officers.“He was in that mob,” Gianforti said. “He chose to be in that mob. And not only that, he made his way to the front of that mob.”If McCaughey is convicted, his lack of a criminal history will an advantage. But the penalties for the crimes with which he is accused and the aggressiveness the government has shown in tracking and prosecuting rioters suggest a significant prison sentence regardless.If he makes a full admission and pleads guilty, he faces from 63 to 78 months in prison under the sentencing guidelines used in federal court.“That’s with a plea,” Gianforti said. “If he goes to trial, he is looking as something like 87 to 108 months. That is a long, long time to spend in jail.” Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantJan 24, 2021 at 6:00 amIn spite of a distinctive name, Patrick Edward McCaughey III, lived a rather undistinguished life, at least until Jan. 6 when a video recording of him appearing to batter and bloody one of the police officers protecting the U.S. Capitol from rioters was broadcast across the internet and around the world.Federal agents followed the video to his mother’s house on the New York border in Ridgefield, one of Connecticut’s most affluent, if not the most affluent places. He was arrested, hauled into court in chains and portrayed as an ugly face...

The Ridgefield man captured on an infamous U.S. Capitol riot video lived an innocuous life in Connecticut; Patrick Edward McCaughey faces years in jail

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