WASHINGTON (AP) — A Colorado bed-and-breakfast operator who advertises herself online as “J6 Praying Grandma” was sentenced Monday to six months of house arrest in her Case of the Capitol Riot after the judge criticized her “offensive” comments about the criminal justice system.
The public prosecutor had demanded ten months behind bars for 72-year-old Rebecca Lavrenz, whose case of a misdemeanor has become a cause célèbre among conservatives critical of the Justice Department’s charges of January 6Prosecutors accused her of “capitalizing on the notoriety of her conviction” by making numerous media appearances questioning the integrity of the court system and the jury that convicted her.
Judge Zia Faruqui told Lavrenz that while her case was one of the less serious cases from Jan. 6, “it was still a serious offense.” The judge raised his voice at times and sounded incredulous when questioning her lawyers about her media comments calling the Jan. 6 charges a “sham trial” and the Washington jury biased.
“This only leads to a weakening of the public’s trust in the system,” said Faruqui.
Faruqui told Lavrenz he didn’t think it would “help” her to send her to jail. But he fined her $103,000 and said he needed to send her the message that defendants cannot profit from their “egregious behavior.” He sentenced her to one year of probation, including six months under house arrest. During her house arrest, the judge ordered her to avoid the Internet.
Lavrentz was embraced by former President Donald Trump, who attacked the January 6 charges a central part of his campaign to return to the White House. After her conviction in April on a minor misdemeanor, Trump said on social media that she had been “unjustly targeted” by the Justice Department and shared a link to a website where people can donate money to her legal aid fund.
Before announcing her sentence, Lavrenz told the judge that she went to the Capitol “out of obedience to God.”
“This whole situation is not just about me, it is about the people of the United States of America,” Lavrenz said.
Your lawyers asked for a suspended sentence without jail time because Lavrenz was not involved in any violence or property damage at the Capitol. In court documents, the defense accused prosecutors of trying to restrict her free speech.
“It is outrageous that the government wants to put this peaceful, non-violent, elderly, retired first-time offender in prison for months simply because Lavrenz openly informed her fellow Americans about the criminal justice system for January 6 defendants,” wrote attorney John Pierce.
Pierce said after the verdict that they were glad she did not receive jail time, but would appeal the conviction. He said they believed the fine imposed by the judge was “one of the highest in history for a misdemeanor.”
Lavrenz, of Peyton, Colorado, has raised more than $230,000 through a crowdfunding website, much of which she received after her conviction this year, prosecutors said. Like many other defendants in the Capitol riot, Lavrenz has used the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo to raise money from supporters.
Lavrenz used some of the donated money for a national speaking tour in which she defended the mob attack and lied about her own conduct, prosecutors said. Her lawyers said she spent over $120,000 on legal fees, $95,000 on an appeal and $9,000 on court-related travel and hotel expenses.
Lavrenz watched as other rioters broke through bike rack barricades and overran a police line on the steps of the Capitol Rotunda, prosecutors said. She chanted “It’s our house, you can’t take our house” before entering the building and spent about 10 minutes inside the Capitol, prosecutors said.
At her trial, she testified that she walked down a hallway in the Capitol looking for members of Congress, prosecutors said. Prosecutor Terence Parker told the judge there was “no question” that she wanted to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.
“She basically promised to do it all again,” Parker said.
More than 1,400 people were charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riots. Over 900 of them were convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging from a few days to 22 years. Hundreds of people, like Lavrenz, who took no part in the violence or destruction, were charged with only misdemeanors.
