A WSOP bracelet winner has been charged by the Department of Justice for being part of the crowd that illegally took over the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jon Heneghan, 57, of Dunedin, Fla., was arrested and charged Tuesday for several crimes related to the riot. A poker player, he won a $1,000 buy-event at the 2005 WSOP for $611K and a bracelet.
He should not be confused with six-time bracelet winner and 2018 Poker Hall of Fame inductee John “Worlds” Hennigan.
Also charged on Tuesday was Heneghan’s girlfriend, Carol Kicinski, a gluten-free chef who cooks for a nationally syndicated TV show and publishes a website for those suffer from the gastrointestinal disease.
The FBI presented proof to a Federal judge that the couple was part of the Pro-Trump crowd who entered the Capitol in order to stop the joint session of Congress from certifying the 2020 Presidential election.
They were booked into the Pinellas County Jail on Federal Marshal status yesterday, and were released.
Live poker reporting helped burst the couple’s bubble
Seminole Hard Rock Poker Room’s blog, which does a ton of live poker reporting, helped the FBI identify Heneghan as the same guy in pictures caught by Capitol and DC security cameras.
A picture of a live tournament post of Heneghan sucking out to survive the bubble at the Seniors event during Hardrock’s Pinktober Poker Open was included in the Statement of Facts presented to US District Court Judge Robin Meriweather on Tuesday.
He eventually finished seventh.
A second picture of Heneghan playing home poker found on Instagram appears in the Statement, but no mention that he makes a living as a poker player.
The FBI’s Statement of Facts and the criminal complaint are found here.
Several news outlets, like Raw Story and the Daily Beast, described Heneghan as a high-stake poker pro, but a representative of Seminole’s poker room couldn’t confirm.
Carol Kicinski, a popular gluten-free television chef, and Jon Heneghan, a high-stakes poker player, have been charged for allegedly storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. https://t.co/rDeGla8GVI
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 24, 2022
But he definitely is a poker player.
In 2005, he won his only bracelet in an event that attracted 894. Barry Greenstein and Freddy Deeb were at the final table. He has two WSOP cashes, the last in 2008. Since 2019, he has only a handful of cashes in tourneys with buy-ins of $400 and less.
Disorder at the Capitol
The pair are charged with four crimes: Disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, and parading in a Capitol building.
The FBI’s Task Officer wrote the couple did “knowingly enter or remain in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do” and “knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions, engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct in, or within such proximity to, any restricted building or grounds when, or so that, such conduct, in fact, impedes or disrupts the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions.”
The FBI were made aware Heneghan might have been part of the crowd that attempted to stop the joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 presidential election after receiving GPS data from Google in May.
Agents then hunted down images of Heneghan through Florida’s DMV and the internet, leading to Heneghan’s instagram page.
Kicinski was connected to the riot through Heneghan and her own GPS data, which, along with the security cam pictures, puts both of them in the Capitol Rotunda that day, says the FBI.
As of Monday, 778 people have been charged for crimes related to the insurrection.
