No deal....

Gyrocopter pilot says no plea deal if prosecutors insist on long prison term

By Spencer S. Hsu

The Florida postal worker who landed a gyrocopter at the U.S. Capitol this spring said Monday that he opposes any plea deal with prosecutors that requires a prison term of “several years,” saying his actions were a “pure act of civil disobedience.”

Douglas Hughes, 61, of Ruskin, Fla., spoke outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington after a hearing in which the prosecution and defense said negotiations continue over his May indictment on six felony and misdemeanor charges. The charges are punishable by as many as 9 1/2 years in prison, and Hughes has pleaded not guilty.

Hughes flew his low-powered gyrocopter from Gettysburg, Pa., to Washington on April 15 to deliver letters to members of Congress protesting campaign finance laws.

On Monday, Hughes said that he expected to be fired imminently by the U.S. Postal Service but that he believed his protest advanced the cause of campaign finance reform “by five years.” He also said he hoped to be part of efforts this year to move the issue to the forefront of the 2016 presidential race through “1960s-style civil disobedience” and other acts of protest.

“No jail time is justified in an act that was only intended to bring the attention of the media and voters to the corruption of our federal government,” Hughes said, “and there are people in Congress who made it perfectly clear that, had they been at the trigger, I would have been shot down for my flight.”

Hughes said he received no personal gain from his flight. “It was a pure act of civil disobedience. Nobody was hurt. There was no property damage,” he said. “The problem is that it was spectacular, okay? And the prosecutor has laid charges on me for that reason.”

U.S. District Judge Colleen ­Kollar-Kotelly of the District set a July 22 hearing for each side to report progress on a deal. Kollar-Kotelly modified a court order limiting Hughes to Hillsborough County, Fla., except for court dates, allowing him to take his ninth-grade daughter to and from school in neighboring Manatee County and to visit his son in the Orlando area.

Hughes remains under orders to stay away from the Capitol, the White House and nearby areas and to not operate any aircraft.

Hughes was charged with two felonies — violating registration requirements involving an aircraft and operating without an airman certificate — and four misdemeanor counts of violating national-defense airspace and operating a vehicle falsely labeled as a postal carrier.

Hughes said prosecutors filed felony charges against him even though the Federal Aviation Administration has not issued rules regarding piloting or registration of ultralight aircraft weighing less than 254 pounds, allowing the community of such recreational fliers to self-regulate. Violations are almost always addressed with administrative penalties, including a fine of as much as $1,000, not criminal prosecution, Hughes said.

“I want to promote the cause, and I think I can do that better from the outside than inside,” Hughes said. “So I will take a deal that does not involve jail time, even if I don’t think it represents perfect justice, okay, but if they are insisting that they want to lock me up for a significant period of time, I’m not going to take the deal, and I will take the risk.”