A truck driver who blocked the entrance to an underground garage at the federal courthouse before dawn on March 16 and sparked a security shutdown of several downtown blocks accepted a plea deal Thursday and was sentenced to time served.
Patrick Blackshire, 41, pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of obstruction of federal property and received a time-served sentence for the five days he spent in the Sacramento County Main Jail.
“I’m guilty, I plead guilty,” Blackshire said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes dismissed a second misdemeanor count after a 30-minute hearing in which Blackshire interrupted her numerous times as he sought to draw attention to a number of civil cases he has filed against various law enforcement and other government agencies.
Blackshire, who conducted a 10-minute video livestream from the cab of his truck as law enforcement surrounded it, initially parked the truck in front of the building’s underground garage at Fifth and I streets.
He then moved it across Fifth Street and parked it adjacent to the Sacramento Valley Amtrak and Regional Transit station until he was convinced to exit the vehicle and face arrest.
The truck sat outside the courthouse for the next five days before it was towed, and forced the closure of some nearby streets for several hours during the standoff with a crisis intervention team and the FBI.