Former WCSO deputy-in-training pleads guilty to two Jan. 6 charges

A former Williamson County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) deputy-in-training pleaded guilty on Monday to assaulting, resisting, or impeding an officer and act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

29-year-old Ronald Colton "Colt" McAbee, of Unionville, will also go to trial on additional charges on Oct. 2.

McAbee was arrested in Aug. 2021 and was charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; inflicting bodily injury; aiding and abetting; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

McAbee was a deputy-in-training in WCSO's detention division from Nov 9, 2020, to March 23, 2021.

Williamson County Sheriff Dusty Rhoades told The News in 2021 that McAbee had sustained an off-duty injury which had kept McAbee on a medical leave from the department during the insurrection.

Sheriff Roades said that WCSO was later contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The attack, which disrupted a session of Congress where the certification of the 2020 election was taking place, has resulted in the arrest of hundreds of people across the nation, including several Tennesseans. 

Prosecutors point to a YouTube video, which can be viewed below, noting that at the 5:35 mark the group can be seen in the huge crowd engaging in that riot.

McAbee was arrested along with a Michigan man as part of an ongoing investigation into five other men who attacked police officers with a baton, crutch, flag pole and reinforced gloves that prosecutors called "deadly and dangerous weapon[s].”

According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, McAbee faces a maximum of eight years and six months in prison, up to $255,000 in fines and up to eight years of probation.

He will be sentenced on those two charges in February 2024.

The Huffington Post reported that McAbee was chastised by the judge for displaying a "sheriff" patch as he assaulted police officers, an act that the judge called "outrageous."

The Tennessean first reported on McAbee’s connection to WCSO and also reported that prosecutors argued in court that McAbee should be held without bail and called him a "threat to the peaceful functioning of our community."

Their report cites that, at one point, McAbee also allegedly flashed a badge to police in order to gain entrance to the Capitol. 

The Tennessean also reported that before his stint with WCSO, McAbee worked as a deputy with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office in Georgia. 

More than 1,100 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and the FBI continues to ask the public for information to assist in the ongoing investigations by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visiting tips.fbi.gov.