A federal judge sentenced a 31-year-old Oconee County man to 40 months in prison on Thursday for assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
The violent actions of Thomas “Tommy” Casselman, an unemployed auto mechanic, beekeeper and supporter of former President Donald Trump, included spraying at least four Metropolitan Police officers with stinging bear spray, according to evidence in the case. The officers were trying to keep a mob from breaking into the Capitol.
The 40 months were exactly what federal prosecutor Katherine Boyles had asked U.S. Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump-appointed judge, to give Casselman.
Casselman, who came to Washington to attend Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of assaulting police officers. The offense carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. Other charges against him were dropped.
Facts in the case showed that Casselman was in front of Metropolitan Police, who had been called in to assist the U.S. Capitol Police to hold a line when he began shouting to them, “You’re fighting the wrong fight!”
Then, as rioters fought with officers and the line began to break, Casselman aimed a bear spray cannister filled with a chemical irritant at four officers and showered them with the mist, which can make it difficult to see and breathe, according to court records.
After returning to South Carolina, Casselman made a variety of Google search queries, including for “assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer,” and “statute of limitations for assaulting a police officer,” according to evidence in the case.
“Casselman also made other concerning queries after January 6 that reflected an interest in conspiracy theories, terrorist groups, and potential bomb-making,” according to prosecutors. He searched for terms that mean “all cops are bad” and visited a known QAnon site. He also admitted deleting various social media accounts after Jan. 6. Other internet searches show “a deeply concerning interest in organizations committed to varying degrees of violent extremism,” said a prosecution memo on the case.
Tipsters helped the FBI locate Casselman, whose face was masked in most of the photos and videos taken during the Jan. 6 riot.
“These tips stated that Casselman bragged about going to Washington D.C., told the tipsters he had been hit with tear gas while there and shared photographs and videos from his time in D.C. after he returned. Tipsters shared screenshots from Casselman’s Facebook account which confirmed that he was in the area of Washington D.C. during the time of Jan. 6,” a complaint in the case said.
FBI agents also used geolocation data and photos of a prominent wart on the back of Casselman’s left hand to identify him, the complaint said.
Renae Alt-Summers, the South Carolina attorney who represented Casselman, declined comment after Thursday’s hearing.
But Alt-Summers said in a defense memo to the judge that her client had come to Washington because he “believed the Constitution was being subverted,”and he believed that because “the President... told him so.”
“Tommy knew instantly that his action that day was wrong. The guilt has consumed him, and he has spent the last three and a half years in a cycle of shielding his family, isolating himself, awaiting punishment and punishing himself,” Alt-Summers wrote.
Casselman is known as a kind and loving member of his family, which includes his mother, stepfather and three sisters, Alt-Summers wrote. “His sisters each note his propensity for helping people who may be struggling. One noted that if he sees someone in a parking lot with the hood of their car up, Tommy will stop to assist.”
People saying how good and helpful Casselman is include a retired FBI agent and one of his former landlords, Alt-Summers wrote.
Casselman loves bees and was keeping some for their honey, but knowing he might be sent to prison, he has given away his hives and honey to a friend, Alt-Summers wrote.
He accepts responsibility, has great remorse and expected to be punished, Alt-Summers wrote. She argued for a period of home detention followed by probation.
Casselman was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution for his share of the $2.9 million in damages the rioters did to public property that day.
Prosecutors wrote that Casselman was part of “a violent attack that forced an interruption of the certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote count, threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential election ... (and) injured more than 100 police officers.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington said Thursday, “In the 42 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,470 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 530 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony. The investigation remains ongoing.”
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