Swanton residents offered plea deals in Jan. 6 charges
SWANTON, Ohio (WTVG) - Two Swanton residents facing charges for their alleged role in the Jan. 6 insurrection are expected to take plea deals, court records indicate.
Jodie Lynn Wilson and her son Cole Temple are charged with knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful authority, demonstrating in a U.S. Capitol building and two counts of disorderly conduct. Both are out on their own recognizance.
Wilson and Cole were back in court, virtually, on Wednesday. Court records say Temple’s lawyers indicted he intends to accept the government’s plea offer and his counsel requested the court set a plea hearing. Wilson’s lawyers indicated she is still considering the government’s offer for a plea deal but her counsel also requested the court set a status/plea hearing.
Their plea hearing date is now scheduled for Oct. 5.
According to court documents, the FBI began investigating Wilson and Temple in January 2021 on allegations the two were at the Capitol during the riots.
During their investigation, FBI agents spoke with a person who said Wilson told them she was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 with Temple and had been invited inside by an unknown person, who Wilson assumed to be a congressman. She also said a police officer at the Capitol told the two that they were allowed to be inside.
The witness also supplied authorities with downloaded videos from Temple’s Snapchat account that appears to show exterior and interior shots of the Capitol building, uploaded on Jan. 6. One of the videos also appears to show Temple recording himself, saying “Just broke in this (building).”
Surveillance video from inside the Capitol also shows individuals matching Wilson and Temple’s appearance inside the building from approximately 3:01-3:18 p.m.
Wilson and Temple were interviewed separately by authorities on Aug. 12. Wilson told agents she had traveled to Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 but initially denied going inside the Capitol Building, saying she was outside. After agents showed her surveillance video of her inside the Capitol, she said police officers had “held the door open for (her)” and that an officer had “told me that’s what I could do, and I went in, and that’s all that I did.”
Temple told authorities he had traveled to Washington D.C. with his mother to attend a protest at the Capitol building. Temple said he was in the second wave of protesters to enter the building, saying it appeared as though law enforcement allowed people inside.
Two other Swanton residents have already been convicted and sentenced for their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Madison Pettit and Gabriel Burress, a local couple, were both sentenced to 18 months of probation on charges of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in the U.S. Capitol. They pleaded guilty in January 2022. The both were ordered to pay $500 in restitution.
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