PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The Hopkinton man convicted for taking part in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has been sentenced to nine months of probation.
William Cotton, 53, struck a deal with prosecutors back in June where he agreed to plead guilty to one count of “parading, demonstrating and picketing in a Capitol building.” In return, prosecutors agreed to drop the three other charges he was facing.
In addition to the nine months probation, Cotton was also ordered to pay $500 in restitution. That money will go toward the $2.8 million in damages the Capitol building endured, according to prosecutors.
Cotton was arrested last December after FBI investigators spotted him in surveillance footage, as well as photos and videos shared to social media, entering the Capitol building just moments after the crowd broke through a doorway.
Prosecutors said once inside, Cotton began chanting “traitor” at Capitol police officers who were trying to push back the crowd.
Cotton is the second Rhode Islander to be sentenced and is one of four to be charged in the ongoing federal investigation into the attack.
Timothy Desjardins and Juan Rodriguez‘s cases are still pending, while Bernard Joseph Sirr was sentenced to two months in prison earlier this year. Sirr is now out and on home confinement.