Man Who Flew Gyrocopter to U.S. Capitol Sentenced to 120 Days in Jail

Douglas Hughes, who landed his gyrocopter on the U.S. Capitol lawn last year to protest the campaign finance system, was sentenced to 120 days in jail on Thursday.

Hughes pleaded guilty in November to the felony of operating as an airman without an airman’s certificate, NBC News reported. Hughes flew from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. through restricted airspace in his open-cockpit gyrocopter on April 15, 2015,

Hughes was also sentenced on Thursday to serve one year’s probation, when he will be barred from the U.S. Capitol and the White House.

The mail carrier from Florida rejected a plea deal last year that would have sentenced him to 10 months in jail. At the time, his attorney said zero to six months would be a more reasonable sentence. At the sentencing, Hughes’s attorneys praised him as a hero fighting corporate influence on politics.

“Heck, yes,” Hughes said, when asked if the protest was worth it. “I’ll never do this again. But yes, it was worth it. Four months? Yeah.”

[NBC News]