Glen Mitchell “Mitch” Simon, a Minot native, posted this photo of himself on social media after leaving the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Image from social media via court documents

Glen Mitchell Simon wouldn’t describe himself as a political person, but he says concerns about an overpowering government and a softening society drew him to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Simon, who is from Minot and now lives in Georgia, pleaded guilty in May 2022 to disorderly and disruptive conduct after using a metal bicycle rack to push police officers during the riot at the Capitol building.

He was sentenced to eight months behind bars and 12 months of supervised release.

“They wanted to make an example out of me, I guess,” Simon said in a phone interview Tuesday after he and thousands of others who participated in the violence were pardoned by President Donald Trump.

Simon said that as someone who already served his eight-month prison sentence at a federal prison in Georgia, the pardons don’t mean much to him. But he said he’s happy for those who are getting released. If he were still sitting in prison, he said he would be “elated.”

He remembers the feeling of the corrections officers banging on his bunk, telling him it was time to go home.

“Hearing that was like being born again,” Simon said.

The courts also ordered him to pay $1,000 in fines and $500 in restitution. He is not sure if he will get reimbursed.

Almost all of the 15 of the defendants with ties to Maine had already been sentenced and served their sentences for their roles in the Washington, D.C., riot, which attempted to overturn the 2020 election and left more than 100 police officers injured.

Kyle Fitzsimons wore a white butcher’s jacket and a fur pelt during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Only three are still in custody. Kyle Fitzsimons, of Lebanon, is being held in federal prison on a seven-year sentence for 11 charges, including felony charges for assaulting five law enforcement officers; he is expected to be released soon.

He was one of the more violent protesters who brandished weapons, like bear spray, a spear and a metal pole. Trump launched his campaign in March with a promise to help his supporters, whom he called “unbelievable patriots,” on his first day back in office.

Christopher Maurer, of Biddeford, is serving a little more than four years in federal prison for assaulting police. He pleaded guilty in July to one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon.

And Matthew Brackley, a Waldoboro man who ran for the Maine Senate, is serving a 15-month sentence in federal prison in Berlin, New Hampshire, for one count of assaulting, impeding or resisting police. He was sentenced in May and ordered to surrender himself at the prison in September.

CONGRESSIONAL REACTION

Trump’s order immediately pardoned nearly all of those who had been convicted of crimes related to the siege and demanded that the U.S. attorney general dismiss all pending cases. (Fourteen people had their sentences cut short.)

The pardons don’t mean that the defendants are considered innocent, according to the federal Office of the Pardon Attorney, but they do remove any conditions given after their conviction like a firearm restriction. A presidential pardon is the only way a person convicted of a federal felony can be allowed to obtain guns again.

The pardons came hours after Trump’s return to the White House and include even those who committed violent crimes — a controversial decision that led to pushback from Maine’s congressional delegation.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins released a written statement condemning pardons for people who assaulted police officers and broke windows to get inside the Capitol building.

“While I believe some Americans were caught up in the crowd on January 6 and may well deserve the clemency President Trump has given, there is a great difference between violent crimes and nonviolent crimes,” Collins said.

Independent Sen. Angus King, meanwhile, called the riot a “violent insurrection and a dark moment in our nation’s history.” He said while the U.S. Constitution promotes peaceful assembly, this situation was a clear crime “that included direct attacks on individual Capitol police officers, leading to serious injury and death.”

“President Trump’s speech touting the importance of law and order is impossible to reconcile with a blanket presidential pardon hours later for those who carried out the attack on the Capitol, along with the rule of law, and the peaceful transfer of power,” King said in a written statement.

Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, said Trump’s pardons of 1,500 people were a “shocking dismissal” of the justice system and an insult to the officers who defended the Capitol that day.

But Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, did not comment on the pardons and cautioned against reacting to every one of Trump’s actions.

“President Trump is going to do and say a lot over the next four years,” Golden said in an emailed statement Wednesday morning. “In his first term, the press demanded an immediate reaction from members to everything Trump did or said. All of us — elected officials and the media — need to avoid falling into this routine again. It was exhausting to everyone involved, including the public, but rarely changed anything. I’m focused on my job and the things I can control.”

DISMISSED CASES

Many other Capitol riot cases involving Mainers were pending in the judicial system and are now being dismissed.

One Sanford man whose request to attend Trump’s inauguration was denied by a federal judge this month received notice Tuesday morning that the federal prosecutor was dropping his case.

David Bobrow, the attorney representing Christopher Belliveau, said his client denies ever being a violent protester — despite accusations that he sprayed a canister of bear deterrent at a police officer.

“The judge will sign off on the dismissal,” Bobrow said in a phone interview Tuesday. “There’s no prosecuting party and that means that the case is done, it’s over.

Christopher Belliveau, 38, of Sanford, is accused of assaulting law enforcement during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. Photo courtesy of FBI

And because the president ordered the cases to be dismissed with prejudice, the charges can’t be refiled.

Bobrow said he had planned to take Belliveau’s case to trial because there was “no evidence that he injured anyone.” Belliveau was arrested in June and faced five felony charges, including assaulting an officer and entering a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and three misdemeanor charges, including disorderly conduct.

“Mr. Belliveau is elated to have this matter behind him and looks forward to continuing his life and businesses and is very thankful for President Trump,” Bobrow said in an emailed statement.

A Lewiston man who ran a popular sausage restaurant in Lisbon also had his charges dismissed Tuesday. Christopher Macchiaroli, an attorney who represents Andre Maurice Bonneau, said his client never assaulted or threatened anyone when he was in Washington that day.

Bonneau is accused of pushing a bike rack barricade toward Capitol police officers, but Macchiaroli said the metal rack didn’t move anywhere because it was heavy. Bonneau was then charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.

“This is a significant overcharging and aggressive prosecution,” Macchiaroli said in a phone interview Tuesday. After the dismissal, he said Bonneau will “continue his life of lawfulness.”

Thomas Bordeau Sr., of Peru, was waiting for his case to be dropped. He faces multiple charges, including disorderly conduct and parading, demonstrating or picketing. His attorney, Nathan Silver, said he spoke with the federal prosecutor Tuesday morning.

While the dismissal motion hasn’t been filed yet, it’s “just a matter of time,” Silver said.

He declined to talk further about the accusations that Bordeau held open the Upper West Terrace for other rioters to enter. But he said his client was one of the many people who went inside the Capitol building that day, and that the government had been charging anyone it can identify.

Staff Writer Daniel Kool contributed to this report.

Note: this story was updated at 11 a.m. Jan. 22 to include a statement from Rep. Jared Golden.