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A former La Habra police chief was sentenced to more than 11 years in jail on Thursday for his role in the Capitol Riots on January 6, 2021, which disrupted the 2020 election challenges.
Alan Hostetter, one of six members of the DC Brigade from Southern California, was found guilty in federal court in July of four offenses, including conspiracy to disrupt an official proceeding and entering a restricted location with a lethal or dangerous weapon. Hostetter was carrying a hatchet.
Hostetter, 58, who now resides in Poolville, Texas, was sentenced by a Washington, D.C., judge to pay $2,000 in restitution and a $30,000 fine. According to federal court documents, he is scheduled to report to prison on January 5, 2024.
According to court records, prosecutors claimed that Hostetter, a staunch supporter of former President Trump, refused to believe that Joe Biden had won the 2020 election.
According to footage and court records, Hostetter advocated for the killing of his perceived political opponents in several speeches at so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ demonstrations in the weeks preceding up to the J6 riot.
Hostetter told an audience at one of these rallies in December 2020 that, “President Trump must be inaugurated on Jan. 20, and he must be allowed to finish this historic job of cleaning out the corruption in the cesspool known as Washington, D.C.”
“The enemies and traitors of America, both foreign and domestic, must be held accountable. And they will. There must be long prison terms, while execution is the just punishment for the ringleaders of this coup,” he said.
Hostetter, who worked in law enforcement for nearly two decades before retiring and becoming a yoga instructor, was a significant figure in Orange County political circles during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Hostetter’s social media pages advocated weekly protests and street marches against “tyrants” issuing health orders for a “bogus” pandemic. He founded the American Phoenix Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of constitutional liberties, according to state registration records.
In June 2021, Hostetter was charged alongside five other men: Ladera Ranch resident Russell Taylor, and Riverside County Three Percenters militia members Derek Kinnison of Lake Elsinore, Felipe “Tony” Martinez of Lake Elsinore, Erik Scott Warner of Menifee, and Ronald Mele of Temecula.
Taylor pled guilty to a conspiracy charge in April. At Hostetter’s trial, he testified for the government. Kinnison, Martinez, Warner, and Mele were convicted of conspiracy to obstruct an official procedure and other offenses in November.
Prosecutors said the men planned their trip to the Capitol using social media, including a Telegram channel called California Patriots – Answer the Call on Jan. 6 and text messages, and discussed carrying weapons with them.
Hostetter, Taylor, and others gathered outside the Ellipse adjacent to the White House on January 6 to hear Trump speak.
In an Instagram video, Hostetter stated that he and others “are not actually going to be going into the Ellipse, because we have some personal protective gear.”
According to court filings, prosecutors believe Hostetter was alluding to a hatchet he had in his rucksack.
Hostetter ascended onto the Capitol’s Upper West Terrace and videotaped the commotion around him. Hostetter did not enter the Capitol, but prosecutors claim he used a bullhorn to incite the mob to push through the police line and into off-limits areas.
“The people have reclaimed their home. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a beautiful sight in my entire life,” Hostetter says in a court-recorded video shot.
Prosecutors stated in a 58-page sentencing document to the court that Hostetter’s intent at the Capitol was to make members of Congress fear for their safety, despite knowing his acts were illegal.
“Hostetter likes to wrap himself in the American flag and take on the role of freedom fighter, but there is nothing patriotic or American about calling for violence — or threatening violence, to achieve your political aims. That is not patriotism. That is terrorism,” prosecutors wrote.
The J6 defendant’s sentence of eleven years in prison is one of the harshest ones handed out to date. The courts must believe that the rioters were a grave risk to overthrow the U.S. government because one of the defendants was carrying a hatchet.
