With a stroke of the presidential pen, folks charged in reference to the U.S. Capitol protest on Jan. 6, 2021, had been free. Many had no thought how they might get residence.
After President Donald Trump signed pardons and commutations on Jan. 20, an estimated 300 folks had been launched from 75 prisons in 35 states, in accordance with Gary Heavin, a Texas philanthropist who raised funds for an operation to satisfy every of the prisoners and assist them get again residence.
“Everybody was scrambling to ensure there have been folks on the gates of those prisons” to welcome the previous prisoners and assist them with primary wants, Heavin advised The Epoch Occasions.
The volunteers ensured that the ex-prisoners “had been heat and fed, with a resort to go to, and a cellphone to reconnect to their households,” he mentioned. Volunteers additionally offered transportation, together with business airline tickets or flights by way of non-public jets, together with one which Heavin owns.
These volunteers and the folks they helped advised The Epoch Occasions that feelings overflowed as they shared time collectively. They described reduction that the prisoners had been freed and will return residence. However in addition they decried how the U.S. justice system dealt with the Jan. 6 instances, and expressed concern over the persevering with challenges that the ex-prisoners face.
“There have been dangerous actors on Jan. 6. However no matter silly issues they did—like breaking glass or turning a desk over—4 years in jail covers it, not 21,” Heavin mentioned. “If we care about injustice, then now we have to care about these folks.”
After Trump received the Nov. 5 election, the volunteer teams started planning for pardons and commutations, Heavin mentioned. Trump had campaigned on guarantees to free the Jan. 6 “political prisoners.” However nobody knew if—or when—the order would come.
Inside hours of his inauguration, Trump commuted 14 sentences of significant offenders and pardoned the remaining 1,569 folks.
The volunteers then set their plans in movement. Heavin and a second Texas pilot, Joe Heartsill, spent two and a half days executing Operation Airlift. From Jan. 21–23, they flew about 20 of the brand new releasees residence; Heavin and his spouse, Diane, say their aircraft traversed 8,000 miles.
Sharing Tales in Flight
As her husband flew the aircraft, Diane Heavin stored firm with the passengers.
The Heavins shed tears as they heard tales of the prisoners’ ordeals and watched the freed males reunite with family members.
“I’ve by no means cried a lot in my life,” Gary Heavin mentioned, regardless that he has witnessed loads of heartache whereas helping folks at scenes of earthquakes and hurricanes.
Serving to these in want has been a significant focus for the Heavins, even whereas they owned a significant enterprise, Curves health facilities for ladies. In 2005, 13 years after the Heavins based the corporate, Curves mentioned it had expanded to 9,300 areas in 38 nations, making it the world’s Tenth-largest franchise agency. The Heavins bought Curves in 2012 and retired, releasing up extra time for philanthropy.
Every mission is an journey, the Heavins say. They really feel compelled to provide again as a result of they’ve been so profitable.
“To whom a lot has been given, a lot is predicted,“ Gary Heavin mentioned. ”We’ve been very blessed, and actually, rescuing folks—you get extra out of it than you place into it.”
Highly effective Moments
The Heavins are mother and father of 4, grandparents of 5 and great-grandparents of three. They had been moved once they witnessed kids reuniting with the prisoners.
Describing himself as “a manly man who flies and stuff,” Gary Heavin mentioned he teared up when he noticed “a little bit woman who’s perhaps 4 years previous, hasn’t seen her father in two years, operating, yelling, ‘Daddy, Daddy!’”
The Heavins additionally witnessed spouses burrowing heads into their family members’ chests and sobbing.
Diane Heavin mentioned it affected her deeply when one of many prisoners exhibited what appeared to be a “PTSD second,” referring to post-traumatic stress dysfunction. He immediately turned distrustful of her, saying, “Wait a minute; you understand an excessive amount of. You is likely to be from the federal government.”
She spent a number of minutes convincing him that was unfaithful. Then he made a press release that hit her arduous: “I didn’t know there have been any good folks left.” She replied: “Sure, there are numerous good folks.”
Requested concerning the former prisoners’ future, Diane Heavin mentioned, “My hopes are that they’ll transfer on and never let this occasion outline who they’re. My worry is that they are going to be tainted with unforgiveness, bitterness, or unresolved anger.”
Extra Difficulties Loom
Diane Heavin mentioned the releasees’ lives have been upended severely. One man advised her “he simply felt a terrific vacancy” and “he didn’t know the place to start to select up the items,” she mentioned.
Lots of the launched prisoners want to search out work, however they don’t know the way to overcome obstacles that their incarceration created. One man advised Diane Heavin: “If I get a job and I don’t have a automobile, how am I going to get there? … My credit score’s been ruined whereas I used to be in jail for 2 years. So, you understand, I can’t purchase a automobile.”
Some have little or no household assist after their marriages broke up and once-close family turned estranged amid the politically charged prosecutions. And a few Jan. 6 defendants “don’t have houses to go to,” Diane Heavin mentioned.
“It actually simply breaks my coronary heart that these individuals who had been simply standing up for his or her First Modification rights might have been subjected to this type of punishment, after which on high of that, lose all the things,” she mentioned.
If not for the volunteers serving to the launched prisoners, “a correctional officer advised me that they might be let free and despatched to a bus station,” mentioned Shelley Freeman, a volunteer who assisted Pete Schwartz. She advised The Epoch Occasions that she paid out of her personal pocket to offer housing, meals, private objects, and a cellphone for him.
Like many Jan. 6 prisoners, he was held in a jail removed from members of the family, making visits troublesome or inconceivable. Schwartz was freed close to Freeman’s California residence—greater than 2,000 miles away from his mother and father in Kentucky.
He returned to them by way of an airline ticket that American Patriot Reduction bought, Freeman mentioned.
Nonviolent Man Grateful for Assist
The primary prisoner whom the Heavins picked up was Glenn Allen Brooks, 64. They flew him from Georgia to Virginia, the place his sister lives.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Brooks was a latecomer to the U.S. Capitol; violent clashes between police and protesters occurred earlier than he arrived. He went contained in the constructing to see what was taking place, and despatched images to his church prayer group. Later, after presents of rewards for ideas resulting in suspected “insurrectionists,” a member of that prayer group reported Brooks to the FBI.
Because of this, authorities interrogated Brooks twice, he advised The Epoch Occasions. In July 2021, a SWAT staff raided his residence round 6 a.m., Brooks mentioned, startling him as he learn the Bible. After a lot authorized wrangling, Brooks stood trial final yr on allegations of disorderly conduct and trespassing. In September 2024, he started serving a six-month jail time period.
On Inauguration Day, phrase had unfold by means of Brooks’ jail that freedom is likely to be imminent for him and two different Jan. 6 prisoners. However Brooks didn’t consider it till, as fellow inmates say, “you’re strolling out the blue door,” which leads from that establishment to the skin world.
A pair of “ambassadors” for the Patriot Freedom Mission, Nicky and Tim Lengthy, greeted Brooks with a hand-drawn posterboard that reads: “Patriot Glenn Brooks, are you able to go residence?”
The Longs handed Brooks a winter coat, 4 suitcases full of garments, meals, and an iPhone. He felt showered with love and blessings. They drove him to a resort room, offered by the group. Hours later, the Brooks took him to an airport in Savannah. There, the Heavins awaited with their non-public jet.
Friendship Cast
“There was numerous prayer, numerous thankfulness, numerous pleasure,” Brooks mentioned. Within the brief time he and the Heavins spent collectively, Brooks feels they’ve solid a lifelong friendship.
He and the Heavins found they’ve a mutual curiosity: Occurring Christian mission journeys to assist impoverished folks within the Caribbean nation of Haiti. Brooks is also an aviation aficionado.
“I discovered them treasured and expensive folks,” he mentioned.
But Brooks feels disoriented as he tries to chart a course for his new, post-Jan. 6 life.
He left California, the place he lived for a few years, and moved to Florida. His marriage ended. And a number of other of the seven kids from his once-blended household have distanced themselves from him, he mentioned.
“I disappeared,” Brooks mentioned. “I form of assume that, as one of many Jan. 6 folks, that I now have an identification that I actually didn’t join.”
Pair of Police Officers Reunite
A Jan. 6 prisoner who flew with the Heavins, retired Boston police officer Joseph Robert Fisher, 54, advised The Epoch Occasions that he feared he is likely to be not noted of Trump’s pardons. Trump had signaled that he was much less inclined to grant mercy to violent offenders. Fisher described his actions as “on the cusp of what is likely to be thought-about violent,” though no officer was harmed.
On Jan. 6, Fisher was swept into the gang that entered the Capitol; at one level, he slid a chair alongside the ground, between an officer and a protester, halting a foot pursuit. Fisher mentioned the chair by no means hit the officer, opposite to the Justice Division’s declare that he “rammed” the chair into the officer.
The officer confronted Fisher. “He grabbed me by the shoulders. I grabbed him by the shoulders. He picked me up, dropped me down on the bottom. At that time, I used to be similar to, ‘Holy smokes. Like, what’s occurring right here?’”
Greater than two years later, SWAT groups raided Fisher’s residence and arrested him on Jan. 6-related prices. Satirically, the FBI focused Fisher after web sleuths matched Jan. 6 video footage with photographs of Fisher’s good police work: He risked his life to seek for suspects within the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
After protracted authorized battles, Fisher might see the deck seemed to be stacked in opposition to Jan. 6 defendants. To get it over with, he pleaded responsible. In Could 2024, he was sentenced to twenty months in jail. However that point was reduce brief when Trump pardoned Fisher, enabling him to return to his spouse of 26 years, Debra—a fellow officer who continues to serve the Boston police division.
“It was a terrific feeling to have a hug and a kiss with out having to put on the lime-green jumpsuit they make you put on throughout visitations,” Fisher mentioned.
The Heavins picked up Fisher at a Pennsylvania jail and flew him again residence to Massachusetts inside an hour or so, saving his spouse a 13-hour spherical journey drive.
“They couldn’t have been extra gracious. They had been the nicest folks on Earth,” Fisher mentioned of the Heavins. “The grace finish of it, from all of the folks that helped us out, was simply completely wonderful.”