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SALT LAKE CITY — An Ogden man was arrested Monday at Hill Air Force Base and charged with participating in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Investigators say he pushed against a police line with a flag pole during the Capitol riots in 2021.
Hal Ray Huddleston, 66, a civilian defense contractor working at Hill Air Force Base, is charged in U.S. District Court in Washington with a felony offense of obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder, and misdemeanor offenses of disorderly conduct, being in a restricted building or grounds, and demonstrating in a Capitol building, according to a federal complaint filed Aug. 21.
Huddleston is currently employed as a maintenance mechanic for the Defense Logistics Agency Distribution at Hill, according to public affairs officer for the program, Thomas Zimmerman.
Prosecutors cite open source video footage and surveillance video of rioters at the Capitol, along with Huddleston's social media posts from the events, as evidence supporting the charges.
The FBI received a tip on Jan. 7, 2021, containing a screenshot of a Facebook post Huddleston had made, which said in part, "I've been to the DC only once in my life and that was today to Storm the Capital, break stuff, fight with the police and be shot with tear gas," according to charging documents.
Huddleston refused to speak with FBI agents when contacted in November 2021 but agreed to be interviewed by special investigators from Hill Air Force Base, court documents say.
When asked about the Facebook post, he told investigators, "He recalled making the post, but its intention was to describe what he saw at the rally, not what he personally did. Huddleston reiterated this numerous times," the charges state.
Phone records obtained through a search warrant show a device registered to Huddleston in "a geographic area that includes the interior of the United States Capitol building," according to the charges.
Other posts that investigators say Huddleston deleted said, "I STAND WITH POTUTS... TILL THE END, and "WE ARE AT WAR RIGHT NOW." He also posted "several references to far-right groups and ideologies known to have been influential or active in the events of Jan. 6, 2021," charging documents say, including the Three Percenters and QAnon.
Security cameras capture Huddleston entering the Capitol through a Senate wing door at 3:08 p.m., about an hour after rioters first breached the door, according to charges. Huddleston allegedly told special agents that "officers waved him and other rioters into the building," but investigators say there were no officers visible at the doorway when he entered.
The Ogden man was captured leaving the building and staying on the upper west terrace, where he helped push other rioters against the advancing police line, the charges allege.
Federal prosecutors say as a police line began to push the crowd north, several members of the crowd near Huddleston pushed back and began fighting with officers. "One of the rioters pushing against the police line did so by holding a wooden flagpole horizontally and pushing it into the backs of rioters pushing into police in order to reinforce them. Open-source video footage shows Huddleston allegedly grabbing the pole and joining the other rioter in pushing it as part of the effort to hold back the police line from advancing," the U.S. attorney's office in Washington said in a statement.
"It is alleged that while Huddleston continued to push the flagpole with his left hand, he then placed his right hand on the back of the other rioter, pushing the flagpole, adding additional force in holding back the officers. Shortly after, police dispersed the rioters fighting against them using OC spray and other crowd control equipment," the statement says.
Huddleston is the 17th charged in Utah for offenses related to the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a database from National Public Radio.
