Ridgefield Man Involved In Jan. 6 Capitol Breach Guilty On 9 Counts

RIDGEFIELD, CT – A Ridgefield man was one of three found guilty Tuesday in the District of Columbia of felony and misdemeanor offenses for their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.

Patrick E. McCaughey III, 25, of Ridgefield; Tristan Chandler Stevens, 26, of Pensacola, FL, and David Mehaffie, 63, of Kettering, OH were found guilty of assaulting or aiding and abetting in assaulting law enforcement officers, interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder, and other charges.

Their actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

According to the government’s evidence, on Jan. 6, 2021, McCaughey, Stevens, and Mehaffie all traveled to Washington, D.C. from their respective homes. Each made his way on to the restricted grounds of the U.S. Capitol. McCaughey and Stevens taunted officers at the West Front, and Mehaffie urged nearby rioters who were hesitating to cross the outer perimeter.

The three defendants ultimately broke through the police line after approximately 2:30 p.m., when the line on the West Front failed under the advancing mass of people. Each of the defendants scaled the Southwest scaffolding and staircase, to converge together at the tunnel created by the inaugural platform structure on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol Building.

At the Lower West Terrace, officers of the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department guarded the entrance door to the Capitol from the crush of people — including McCaughey, Stevens and Mehaffie — for several hours. Between 2:41 p.m. and 3:19 p.m., the three defendants attempted to break into the building by directing other rioters, participating in heave-hos against the police line, using riot shields taken from the Capitol Police, and assaulting three specific officers.

Mehaffie hung from an archway and shouted direction from above, and McCaughey and Stevens were key players in the melee below, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of Connecticut. McCaughey grabbed a riot shield and used it as a weapon.

McCaughey was arrested on Jan. 19, 2021, in South Salem, New York. He was found guilty of a total of nine offenses. They include seven felony charges: three counts of aiding or abetting or assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers, including one involving a dangerous weapon; one count of obstruction of an official proceeding; one count of interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder; one count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and one count of engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon. The two misdemeanor charges include: disorderly conduct in a Capitol Building and committing an act of violence in the Capitol Building or grounds.

The Ridgefielder is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 26, 2023.