By Steve Patterson
The Florida Times-Union
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A state corrections officer faced a federal magistrate in Jacksonville Thursday after his arrest on misdemeanor charges involving the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Jonathan Daniel Carlton, who works at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, could face up to 18 months behind bars if convicted of charges involving entering a restricted building and disorderly or disruptive conduct.
He was released on a $25,000 signature bond, in which no money is posted up-front but a defendant agrees they can be held accountable for the cash if he violates terms of his pre-trial release.
Carlton, who lives in Union County, appeared shackled and dressed in a business suit in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Barksdale to address charges filed in federal court in Washington.
Carlton, who online sites say is 45, is the sixth person to appear in Jacksonville’s federal court on charges tied to the riot that delayed Congress certifying the results of the presidential election.
Carlton waived a hearing to confirm his identity but his attorney, Richard Landes, stressed that Carlton “is not admitting that he was at the scene of any crime.”
A campus newspaper at George Washington University in Washington reported Jan. 6 that a man named Jonathan Carlton said he had traveled from Florida to “certify the fraud that occurred without a reasonable doubt in seven states during the election.”
Former President Donald Trump asserted for months after the election that electoral college votes from a number of states were awarded to President Joe Biden because of fraud.
The campus newspaper, the GW Hatchet, said that the Carlton it interviewed reported having entered the Capitol for abut 20 minutes and described the hallways as being packed with people who had broken through a police perimeter.
Carlton, who also visited D.C. from Florida, said he entered the Capitol for roughly 20 minutes. The halls were “packed” with people who had broken through the perimeter, he said.
The newspaper also quoted a traveler from Florida it identified as Brad Veeks, who said that “our country is being stolen from us.”
Bradley W. Weeks of Macclenny was charged in January with misdemeanors involving the riot and was told during his first court appearance not to have any contact with an unnamed traveling companion who had accompanied him to Washington.
Carlton was also told Thursday not to have contact with an unnamed person, and told Barksdale that wouldn’t be a problem. It wasn’t clear whether Weeks was that person.
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