The wife of a former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy who was convicted on charges related to January 6 told The Tennessee Star that families and friends of those defendants often experience survivor’s guilt, especially as many of those accused of crimes spend their third Christmas in jails or prisons.
Sarah McAbee, the executive director of Stand in the Gap and wife of January 6 prisoner Ronald McAbee, explained, “Wives are waking up without their husbands, children are waking up without their fathers. Even in the federal prison system, they only get a 15 minute phone call per day.”
She told The Star that on January 6, she “have to decide, am I going to call my spouse? Am I going to call my parents? Am I going to call my child?”
A Washington, D.C. jury convicted Ronald McAbee in October after federal prosecutors claimed he engaged in a fight with a member of law enforcement on January 6, and his sentencing is currently scheduled for February 29, 2024. Video showed Ronald McAbee, a former Williamson County Sheriff’s deputy, struggling to assist fallen protester Rosanne Boyland, who died of the injuries she sustained at the Capitol. It also shows him struggle alongside a member of law enforcement, whom the family maintains Ronald McAbee attempted to assist.
She told The Star, “Truly, the process is the punishment for everybody involved,” noting periods when jail and prison staff “cut off communications,” leaving family without contact “for days on end.” She added, “You don’t know if they’re okay, or if they’re even alive.”
Her organization, Stand in the Gap, assists with visitation for January 6 prisoners. Sarah McAbee told The Star the work is vital for the January 6 defendants “because the government is trying to break these people whichever way they can.”
“We weren’t able to see our loved ones for two years, even via video visits. My husband’s been incarcerated for 29 months now, I’ve seen him six times,” she revealed. “The first time, I saw him behind glass for 30 minutes, and that was a year and a half into [his incarceration].”
Sarah McAbee explained, “Even the littlest things help, because their families are still trying to live on the outside, especially at Christmas time. This is going to be their third Christmas away.”
While families suffer financially and emotionally without their loved ones, she added that “survivor’s guilt is a very real thing” too.
“You feel guilty about being able to sleep with a pillow because they have no pillows. You feel guilty for being able to go to dinner, because they get fed rice and beans every night for dinner and a baloney sandwich every day for lunch,” she said. “When they say that we’re doing time out here, we absolutely are.”
Despite the hotly contested video that seems to show her husband was actively attempting to render aid on January 6, Sarah McAbee told The Star her husband was disowned by family and abandoned by friends. She added that many January 6 defendants have similar experiences, with all but immediate family members cutting ties.
Still, she told The Star, there is “a really beautiful side” to the otherwise traumatic experience. She said, “We’ve had people come into our lives that we never would have met if not for this.”
Sarah McAbee added that she gains strength from her Christian faith.
She said, “The Lord has a much bigger plan, I’ve said this from the very beginning. This is much bigger than we could even fathom, the Lord has a much bigger plan for all of this.”
She added, “He sends storms in our life to clear the branches, to clear the things that are in our lives that shouldn’t be. Unfortunately, sometimes that’s people.”
Despite her husband’s conviction, Sarah McAbee told The Star she remains generally optimistic about the future. Citing promises from presidential candidates to pardon January 6 defendants, she expressed hope that a future Republican Congress would go further, with investigations about how the day transpired, the subsequent Department of Justice prosecutions were made possible, and defendants were left unable to contact family and lawyers.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ronald McAbee” by Sarah McAbee.
