The California Face of Insurrection

The following are brief synopsis of the federal charges against some of the 50 Californians out of 727 who are currently charged who participated in the mob attack against the Capitol building 12 months ago. Some operated as individuals in concert with a mob while others worked in organized groups with the intent to disrupt the certification of the 2020 elections.

Christian Secor

Christian Secor, a 22-year-old UCLA student, had gained school notoriety before the Jan. 6 insurrection. His classmates say that he attacked women and racial minorities on Twitter and had embraced the ideology of a far-right extremist. On-campus, he pushed a student Republicans group toward extreme positions against all immigration. And on the video streaming site DLive, Secor took on the handle “Scuffed Elliot Rodger” — an apparent reference to the misogynist gunman who killed six people in Isla Vista in 2014.

The Department of Justice alleges that Secor stormed the chamber of the U.S. Senate and sat in the chair occupied just hours earlier by former Vice President Mike Pence. Secor is now facing multiple federal criminal charges — including assaulting, resisting or impeding officers — in connection with the violence at the Capitol.

Evan Neumann

Evan Neumann of Mill Valley, who fled to Belarus in order to escape criminal charges for his part in the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, has given an exclusive interview to Russia’s state media outlet RT. In his previous appearance, which was on Belarusian state TV, Neumann implied that Russia was his preferred destination and Belarus simply happened to be closer. Now this man — on the run from the American justice system — seems to be courting refuge from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Neumann is wanted in the U.S. on six criminal charges related to the Capitol riot, including two felonies for assaulting an officer and participating in civil disorder. The U.S. fugitive’s comments to the notorious state media outlet seem like an attempt to ingratiate himself with the Kremlin and perhaps to land in Moscow at some point in the future. 

Kevin Galetto

Kevin Louis Galetto, 61, of Westminster was charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, obstruction of justice, entering a restricted building or grounds, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

An affidavit from FBI Special Agent David DiMarco alleges that video first showed Galetto at the Capitol about 2:40 p.m. Jan. 6 at the Lower West Terrace tunnel entrance.

Body-worn camera footage from police shows Galetto “with his arms extended and pressed up against (Metropolitan Police Department) officer shields,” DiMarco wrote.

The body-worn cameras also show him in a “scuffle” with one officer, who was injured, DiMarco said. The officer was “knocked to the ground,” and the defendant can be seen pushing on the officer’s shield, DiMarco said.

Mark Simon

Mark Simon, a Capitol rioter from Huntington Beach, who pled guilty to a misdemeanor in August, is pleading with a federal judge for mercy since he was inebriated at the time of the uprising.

The crime of “parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol” carries a possible prison sentence of up to six months. 

According to NBC News investigative reporter Scott MacFarlane, Simon is seeking probation.

When Simon took part in the insurgency, he broke his probation from a previous California felony. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison earlier this year as a result of his actions. However, he claims to have been sober since being taken into detention on Feb. 25.

Kevin Francisco Cordon and Sean Cordon 

Brothers Kevin Francisco Cordon and Sean Cordon, pictured, from Los Angeles and Alhambra, respectively, were charged with taking part in the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6. FBI agents raided their homes this past August and took them into custody without incident. Both appeared in U.S. District Court in Downtown LA the same day and were charged with breaking into the Capitol and attempting to impede an official proceeding. The brothers were released on $50,000 bail and under conditions by a judge. 

The FBI said footage from the day showed both brothers wearing a gas mask, entering the building through a broken window. Kevin Cordon confirmed what happened in the interview. He said he saw other rioters “scuffling with the cops” and was bloodied when he was hit in the forehead with “a projectile, not sure what it was.”

Lois McNicoll

Lois McNicoll works for Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Social Services and was outed by co-workers who saw her on television amongst the rabble breaking into the capitol building. In the weeks following the insurrection, investigators confirmed tips on McNicoll via CCTV camera footage at the nation’s capital. 

According to the federal criminal complaint, the 69-year-old social worker was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

McNicoll was identified in a screenshot posted on social media showing a female wearing a white hat emblazoned with the name “Trump.” According to the Justice Department complaint, the screenshot was taken from TV news footage and provided to law enforcement by a fellow DPSS employee.

Ricky Willden 

Ricky Willden was charged with causing civil disorder; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings; parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

The 39-year-old Oakhurst resident had been charged with federal assault, resisting officers, and physical violence crimes.

Sean McHugh

A Justice Department complaint alleges that Sean McHugh heckled police officers for “protecting pedophiles.” Interestingly enough, McHugh previously served jail time after being convicted in the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl.

Justice Department documents say that McHugh fought with police as they fended off the massive mob outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. During the scuffle, McHugh was recorded by police body-worn cameras heckling the officers with a megaphone.

Kevin Strong

Kevin Strong, a Federal Aviation Administration employee and QAnon follower had been on the FBI’s radar and is facing federal charges after he confessed to taking part in the siege of the U.S. Capitol.

Strong, 44, faces three charges: violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, entering or remaining in a restricted area, and being disorderly or disruptive in a restricted area.

Strong works for the FAA in San Bernardino, and the FBI began investigating him on Dec. 30, 2021, a week before a violent mob stormed the Capitol.

The investigation began after someone told the agency that Strong “had been showing signs of behavioral changes over the last few months including stockpiling items and telling others to get ready for martial law, rioting, and protesting,” the FBI affidavit said.

Strong “adheres strongly to QAnon ideology, admitting to having ‘Q Clearance,’ and said he believed that “a new one-party system” called “the Patriot Party” was coming, the affidavit said.

Jeffrey Alexander Smith

Coronado resident Jeffrey Alexander Smith was charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and entering a restricted building.  The 33-year-old Smith is a decorated Army war veteran. 

According to the criminal complaint, Smith was interviewed by the FBI, and admits he went inside the capitol for 30 minutes. 

Jorge Riley

Jorge Riley resigned from leadership positions in the GOP activist group California Republican Assembly in January 2021 after multiple posts to his personal Facebook page and a video posted to Reddit appeared to show him bragging about breaking into the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Riley can be seen in a video claiming that none of the officers were hurt during the riots. He praised the officers as being “very nice,” even though he said that he “got pepper-sprayed three times,” while adding that the rioters and police embraced each other after leaving the building.

Simone Gold

Simone Gold is a licensed physician and surgeon, according to the California Medical Board, and founded America’s Frontline Doctors, which staged a now-infamous news conference in front of the Supreme Court last year to criticize pandemic lockdowns and government efforts to stop the spread of the virus.

Gold was arrested in Beverly Hills on Jan. 18 after she was photographed with a bullhorn inside the Capitol building. She was indicted on Feb. 5 and pleaded not guilty to the charges later that month. A status conference for her case was held on Sept. 28, and she remains free on her own recognizance.