The postal worker who flew a gyrocopter over restricted air space in Washington, D.C., before landing on U.S. Capitol grounds last April was sentenced Thursday to 120 days in jail.
Doug Hughes, 62, will serve four months behind bars and a year on probation for his aerial protest against special interest groups in politics. Hughes had pleaded guilty to a felony charge of operating a one-man aircraft without a license and had faced a 10-month sentence.
“You did take a calculated risk,” U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly told the defendant Thursday. “You are now facing the consequences of this.”
The Ruskin, Fla., resident is expected to serve the sentence at a minimum security facility in Florida. Due to the constraints of his punishment, including the difficulty involved with fundraising and campaigning while in jail, he has forfeited his congressional bid for Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s Miami district.
Instead, Hughes said, he has urged voters to support Democrat Tim Canova, a law school professor running against the congresswoman in the primary.
