January 6 Rioter From Weston Sentenced to Nearly Five Years in Prison

A Weston native who beat a cop with a baton during the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack — and then allegedly kept the weapon as a "souvenir" under a computer desk in his Florida home — has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison.

A year and a half after Mason Courson, 27, was arrested at his Tamarac residence, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras has sentenced him to 57 months in prison for his role in the January 6, 2021, riot. Courson was accused of joining a mob chanting "Heave, ho!" as they bashed their way into the Capitol, leaving D.C. Metropolitan police officer Daniel Hodges crushed and bleeding between two doors.

Hodges testified that the rioters yanked off his gas mask and that one shouted, "You will die on your knees."

Courson pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia last November to assaulting another officer with a deadly weapon (the baton) during the melee. In addition to the prison term, Contreras gave him 36 months of supervised release and ordered him to pay $2,000 in restitution.
According to court documents, Courson and a group of rioters stormed into the Lower West Terrace tunnel of the Capitol around 3:15 p.m. on January 6. They proceeded to assault police with a flagpole, crutch, and batons stolen from officers.

Rioters grabbed an officer, identified as "B.M." in court documents, and pulled him down a flight of stairs outside the Capitol.

"Once Officer B.M. was partway down the steps, co-defendant Peter Stager beat Officer B.M. with a flagpole. Courson then beat Officer B.M. with a police baton," prosecutors' sentencing memorandum states, noting that Courson's assault was captured on a police body-worn camera.

In the months following the attack, the FBI worked to identify Courson via social media, where they shared photos of him sporting a red Trump beanie outside the Capitol. Internet sleuths gave Courson and a man who appeared alongside him in a Trump cap the nicknames #Tweedledee and #Tweedledumb before his identity was confirmed.

It was eventually revealed in court documents that Courson kept the beanie he wore that day, along with the baton that he used to strike the D.C. officer. Pictured in government evidence next to a stoic, white-pawed cat in Courson's home, the weapon was found under his computer desk near a confederate flag.

"Courson’s post-arrest interview [made] clear that he had no remorse for his actions that day as he was battling in a 'warzone' and the officers were 'traitors' to him. Indeed, Courson kept the baton as a souvenir
of his actions that day," the sentencing memorandum states. A judge previously wrote that while it was uncertain if the baton was kept as a "trophy or memento," Courson's decision to hold onto it was "not emblematic of someone who has remorse or has come to regret his actions."

Prosecutors had sought a seven-year sentence for Courson, who faced a maximum of 20 years in prison on the charge. They noted in the sentencing memorandum that he had previously been arrested in 2015 on charges of battery, assault on law enforcement, and disorderly conduct in a Delray Beach incident in which he allegedly punched and kicked local police.

Courson grew up in Weston and played football at Cypress Bay High School. He attended college at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, before moving back to South Florida, where he attended Broward College and later opened an electronics business that resold audio and video equipment.

His defense attorney argued for a sentence no greater than 33 months, pointing to Courson's three-year-old son and citing letters of support from family members who described him as a doting father. The attorney told the court the South Florida native "regrets his conduct and apologizes to the law enforcement officers who struggled in that chaotic scene." Courson's mom previously launched a campaign on the Christian crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo seeking to raise $50,000 to help cover Courson's legal fees and other financial obligations. The campaign, titled "My Patriot Son," states that Courson had "no ill intent" when he went to watch then-President Trump speak but wound up in a situation he "never imagined."

A number of families and friends of people arrested in connection with the riot have turned to GiveSendGo —  which bills itself as the "#1 free Christian crowdfunding site" and "a place to fund hope" — to help cover mounting legal fees. Friends and family of Miami-born Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio raised more than $113,000 on GiveSendGo after he was arrested for burning a stolen Black Lives Matter banner owned by a historic Black church and possessing high-capacity firearm magazines.

As of June 21, the GiveSendGo campaign for Courson has raised more than $30,000.