Three men with ties to Centre County were among roughly 1,500 defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot pardoned by President Donald Trump on Monday.
Two were released from from federal prisons within hours of Trump’s sweeping Inauguration Day clemency order and the other, who was free while awaiting appeal, had his case dismissed. All three were convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers during the riot, when Trump supporters sought to stop the joint session of Congress certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Terry L. Allen, 66, of Spring Mills was released from a federal prison on Tuesday, according to Bureau of Prisons records. He was sentenced to two years in prison in November. At the time his attorneys unsuccessfully sought to have his sentencing delayed because Trump had repeatedly vowed to pardon Jan. 6 defendants, and that Allen was “a worthy candidate” who had “a good chance” to receive a pardon.
Allen was convicted in July 2023 on seven charges, including a felony count of assaulting law enforcement with a deadly or dangerous weapon after video showed him throwing a metal pole at officers outside the Capitol.
“Allen fought with police at every opportunity,” Justice Department prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum, and was “at the forefront” of the crowd that breached the security perimeter around the Capitol.
Former State College business owner Julian E. Khater, 35, whose most recent address was in New Jersey, was released from prison on Monday night. He was sentenced in January 2023 to more than six years in prison, which at the time was the longest prison sentence for anyone charged in the riot.
Khater pleaded guilty in 2022 to two felony counts of assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon after admitting to pepper-spraying two U.S. Capitol police officers. One of those officers, Brian Sicknick, died a day after the Capitol attack. A medical examiner concluded Sicknick died of natural causes after suffering multiple strokes, and Khater was not charged in his death.
Brian Gundersen, 30, who lived in State College at the time of the Capitol riot, was sentenced in 2023 to 18 months in federal prison, but was released from custody pending appeal in April 2024. A federal judge on Tuesday granted prosecutors’ request to dismiss Gundersen’s indictment, citing the Trump pardon.
Gundersen was found guilty in November 2022 of assaulting a law enforcement officer and obstructing Congress. Prosecutors said he was among the first wave of rioters that entered the Capitol through the the parliamentarian door, and later rushed at and hit a Metropolitan police officer with his arm.
“Although [the officer] did report any physical injuries from Gundersen’s assault, the defendant’s participation in this riot aided those rioters who did succeed in injuring officers and destroying property,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “His violent conduct served to incite and embolden other violent rioters around him.”
Nearly all defendants charged in the Capitol riot were granted “a full, complete and unconditional pardon” by Trump.
A pardon precludes further punishment for a crime and restores certain civil rights, such as the ability to vote or hold office. It does not, however, erase a conviction from the defendant’s record.
