As a young man, John Thomas Gordon was a member of a semi-professional baseball team, the Oakland Oaks, in Garrett County, Md., giving him confidence and a sense of purpose. A decade ago, serving a three-year jail term, Gordon was a member of Dead Man Incorporated, a prison gang that he thought was “just a brotherhood of men who looked out for each other.”
And on Jan. 6, 2021, Gordon was a member of the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol.
Gordon, a Grant County resident, was sentenced this week to six months jail time and 24 months supervised release after pleading guilty to a federal charge of civil disorder. Federal prosecutors accused him of repeatedly kicking U.S. Capitol doors and throwing a hard object over and over in an attempt to gain entry.
The sentencing took place Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Gordon’s lawyer had asked a federal judge for a sentence of only five years probation, saying that he could help his elderly and disabled parents by staying out of jail. Moreover, his lawyer said, Gordon “found himself embarrassed by the videos of the riot he saw on television and the videos of his behavior he saw in discovery.”
Prosecutors asked for 18 months jail time. “Gordon joined a mob and caused significant damage to the United States Capitol building, the single most prominent symbol of this nation’s democracy,” prosecutors wrote in a pre-sentencing report.
“He cursed and taunted police officers while they were attempting to carry out their duties. His belligerent criminal conduct on January 6, 2021 was the epitome of disrespect for the law.”
A mob storming the U.S. Capitol that day disrupted the constitutional duty of counting Electoral College votes and prompted the evacuations of representatives, senators and Vice President Mike Pence. One woman was fatally shot while trying to climb into the chambers, three others died from “medical emergencies” and more than 100 police officers were injured.
Gordon wound up at the U.S. Capitol that day after seeing news reports about the Stop the Steal rally for President Donald Trump and being invited by a friend to travel to Washington, D.C., according to a presentencing report filed by his public defender.
On Jan. 6, he attended the rally on the Ellipse with his friends and, afterwards, walked to the Capitol complex with a crowd of people. He had no intention of entering the building, his lawyers wrote. But then he heard about the shooting of Ashli Babbit, a protester who was fatally shot about 2:45 p.m. by an officer guarding the House of Representatives chamber. Gordon got angry, his lawyer said.
Gordon joined an angry mob on the North side of the Capitol building about 3:40 p.m. While standing near police officers guarding the doors, Gordon glared at the officers and repeatedly chanted at them, “This is our house!,” “Stop the Steal!,” “You’re cowards,” and “F**ck you, fake-ass police,” according to footage from officers’ body cameras.
After the officers retreated inside the building, prosecutors wrote, Gordon and other rioters made their way up the North steps to just outside the doors. About 4:05 p.m., Gordon joined a crowd trying to enter the Capitol building.
The North doors of the Capitol building include a set of outer doors, which lead to a vestibule, and a set of inner doors leading into the U.S. Capitol building. The outer doors were being held open by protestors, and police officers stood immediately behind the inner doors, trying to prevent protesters from entering.
As “Thunderstruck” played on a loudspeaker in the crowd, Gordon yelled “F*** D.C.,” and wound back in a long, overhand motion to throw a round, softball size, hard object weighing between one and three pounds, investigators said. The crowd cheered as the object thudded four times against the doors where officers remained visible on the other side.
At 4:10 p.m., prosecutors wrote, Gordon began charging the inner doors and kicking them with enough force to damage and cause the inner doors to briefly open. Another rioter handed Gordon a pair of ski goggles so he could better withstand the chemical irritants being sprayed by the officers. He briefly put them on, gave them back and walked away.
Gordon was identified after photographs of U.S. Capitol riot participants were published to a Federal Bureau of Investigations website. On March 3, 2021, a person providing an anonymous tip told investigators that Gordon might be the man in the photograph, according to a statement of facts filed by federal authorities.
One of the ways he was identified was by matching video images from the riot to social media posts of Gordon receiving head tattoos in Petersburg, Grant County.
On March 26 that year, local investigators went to the apartment building in Davis where Gordon lived. Gordon agreed to an interview and admitted being at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
Gordon was arrested July 8, 2022, and pleaded guilty last October.
His lawyer, asking for leniency, wrote that Gordon got off to a difficult start in life after being sexually abused between ages 7 and 9 by another teenager, leading to feelings of anger and worthlessness.
Gordon found respite in baseball and “found that it calmed his anger and kept his bad behavior in check.” After high school, he joined a semi-professional baseball team, the Oakland Oaks, and played for six years.
In 1997, though, he was working for a construction company and fell off a ladder, herniating several discs and seriously injuring his back. Gordon “found himself disabled, unable to work, and unable to play the sport that for years had made him happy and kept those childhood anger issues at bay,” his lawyer wrote.
Gordon’s lawyer wrote that he started abusing marijuana, alcohol, prescription pain medication, valium, ecstasy, LSD, crack and powder cocaine, and heroin.
He also racked up a series of criminal offenses, starting in 1998 with a conviction of second-degree assault and continuing through a 2016 domestic violence battery conviction, a 2017 driving under the influence conviction and a 2018 charge of being a fugitive from justice.
While serving jail time in those years, Gordon joined Dead Man Incorporated and wound up in solitary confinement because of his association.
Following the most recent arrest from his participation in the Jan. 6 mob, his lawyer wrote, Gordon started trying again to turn his life around. He stopped drinking, stopped smoking marijuana and joined a participating in Chain Breakers, a faith-based drug treatment program, wrote his lawyer, Nicholas Compton, a federal public defender based in Martinsburg.
Letters in the court file from Gordon’s friends and family include statements from his elderly parents who live in Grant County. Gordon’s mother and father describe themselves as elderly, disabled and on limited incomes, needing their son’s support. The letters ask the judge for leniency.
“It takes all I can do to take care of his dad,” Gordon’s 70-year-old mother wrote. “I can’t do the mowing, shovel snow, weed eat or any of the plumbing or house repairs. I can’t plant the garden or work on vehicles.
“Please, your honor, consider the fact that we need him here with us. He is always willing to do whatever it takes to help us. He makes our lives easier and is so much help and comfort. Please let him do his time here where he is truly needed.”