A North Carolina girl who introduced her 14-year-old son into the US Capitol throughout final yr's riot has sentenced to 3 months in jail.
US District Choose Colleen Kollar-Kotelly stated she finds it "very exhausting to understand" why Virginia Marie Spencer and her husband took their baby into the constructing throughout a violent revolt.
Spencer's husband, Christopher Raphael Spencer, additionally was arrested. He has pleaded not responsible to riot-related fees.
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"It will need to have been a traumatic expertise to witness this type of violence," the choose stated.
"It is a full lack of judgment in your half."
Spencer should report back to jail to start serving her 90-day sentence by February 25. The choose additionally sentenced her to 3 years of probation.
Spencer and her husband pressed ahead towards the Capitol constructing with their 14-year-old son "in tow" regardless of seeing police capturing tear fuel on the group, a federal prosecutor wrote in a court docket submitting.
The Spencers joined different rioters who overwhelmed a line of cops, invaded Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi's workplace suite and demanded entry to the Home chamber, the submitting says.
Virginia Spencer pleaded responsible in September to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol constructing, a misdemeanor punishable by a most of six months imprisonment.
Prosecutors really useful a sentence of three months of incarceration, three years of probation and US$500 ($696) for restitution. Her protection lawyer, Allen Orenberg, requested for a sentence of 1 yr of probation with neighborhood service.
Greater than 700 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol.
Over 170 of them have pleaded responsible, largely to misdemeanor fees. Spencer was at the least the seventy fifth riot defendant to be sentenced.
Spencer, a mom of 5 from Pilot Mountain who works as a restaurant cashier, was arrested in Durham, North Carolina, in February.
On January 6, 2021, the Spencers and their son walked to the Capitol behind a gaggle of members of the far-right Proud Boys. The couple briefly stopped to scream profanities at a counter-protester, in accordance with prosecutors.
Contained in the Capitol, Christopher Spencer filmed a Fb Dwell video as he and his spouse briefly entered Ms Pelosi's workplace suite, prosecutors stated.
"Of notice, Speaker Pelosi had workers members who had been trapped inside that suite because the rioters referred to as for Speaker Pelosi steps away from them," a prosecutor wrote.
Virginia Spencer later joined a gaggle of rioters who had been chanting "Cease the steal!" and "Break it down!" outdoors the Home Chamber door, though prosecutors say she wasn't vocal or on the entrance of that crowd.
The Spencers spent greater than half-hour contained in the Capitol earlier than leaving.
Spencer's lawyer says she "ate up" media protection of protests that erupted throughout the nation in the summertime of 2020 after a white police officer killed a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis.
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"After months of watching our main cities burn, many individuals turned satisfied that vocal shows of shock within the type of protesting was the one method to make their voices heard," Mr Orenberg wrote in a court docket submitting.
Spencer additionally believed former US Preisdent Donald Trump's lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, her lawyer stated.
"Mrs Spencer didn't come to Washington, DC, with the intention of subverting democracy," Mr Orenberg wrote.
She got here "to peacefully protest what she believed at the moment to be a fraudulent election."
A prosecutor stated Virginia Spencer "felt she was embarking on a noble endeavor as a consultant of the citizenry."
"She couldn't have been extra incorrect," the prosecutor wrote.
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