WASHINGTON, DC — Monday, President Donald Trump granted more than 1,500 insurrection pardons and commutations for people convicted and charged in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including four Rhode Island men, two of them violent offenders.
The four Rhode Islanders faced charges stemming from the insurrection, which injured 140 police officers and temporarily stopped Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election. Two of the men were charged with disorderly conduct and impeding passage in the U.S. Capitol. One man convicted of assaulting police officers had nearly ended his sentence at the time of the pardons. Another had yet to be prosecuted, but had since been sentenced to 18 years in prison on unrelated charges.
RI Men Receiving Trump insurrection pardons
The men, and the charges against them were:
Juan Rodriguez, 30, of Central Falls, who pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a room in a capitol building and obstructing or impeding passage in a capitol building, had been in prison for a month pending a February sentencing date.
Bernard Joseph Sirr, 47, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, was convicted in U.S. Court and sentenced to two months in prison in May 2023, followed by 12 months of probation with six months of home confinement, and restitution of $2,000 for assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers and obstruction of an official proceeding. He pleaded guilty on Jan. 27, 2023 in the District of Columbia. Sirr had about a month left of probation to his sentence at the time of the pardon.
Timothy Desjardins, 38, of Providence, was charged with engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, civil disorder, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers with a dangerous weapon. He had not yet been prosecuted on those charges. However, he is serving an 18-year state sentence for an unrelated September 2021 shooting and armed standoff with the Providence Department in November 2021.
William B. Cotton, 55, of Hopkinton, had been charged by the FBI for Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds and disorderly conduct in the Capitol building during the insurrection. Cotton had been convicted and sentenced to nine months probation in September 2023, according to Turnto10.com He had finished his sentence at the time of the insurrection pardons.
“Those who organized and violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 waged a deadly assault on our democracy,” said U.S. Senator Jack Reed the day after the Insurrection pardons were announced, the second day of President Trump’s term of office.
“They were convicted for their heinous actions, which included a coordinated, brutal assault on law enforcement officers who bravely risked their lives and seditious conspiracy. Police officers were savagely beaten that day with an array of weapons in these planned, coordinated attacks.”
“This should not be a partisan issue. Indeed, in the days after January 6, several of my Republican colleagues specifically called for Federal law enforcement to ‘arrest and prosecute the domestic terrorists who broke into our Capitol . . . to the fullest extent of the law.’ ” Reed said of the Insurrection pardons.
“Trump’s pardon of these offenders is an insult to law enforcement, the rule of law, and our democracy. With these pardons, Donald Trump is sending a dog whistle to other extremists that political violence is okay as long as it is done under the banner of Trump.
“The president has the power to pardon, but he can’t erase this historic stain on his record or whitewash history,” Reed said.
Author: Rob Borkowski
Rob has worked as reporter and editor for several publications, including The Kent County Daily Times and Coventry Courier, before working for Gatehouse in MA then moving home with Patch Media. Now he's publisher and editor of WarwickPost.com. Contact him at editor@warwickpost.com with tips, press releases, advertising inquiries, and concerns.
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