A Colorado mother was given a six-figure good and a time of parole for praying at the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021.
On Monday, Rebecca Lavrenz, a great-grandmother in her 70s who is also known as the” J6 Praying Grandma” on social media, was sentenced after she was convicted on four misdemeanor charges this spring. Lavrenz was found guilty of entering and remaining in a limited building, disorderly conduct and destructive do in a limited building, chaotic do in the Capitol, and walking, demonstrating, or picketing in the Capitol.
According to the Denver Post, Lavrenz, who avoided prison time, “was sentenced Monday to 12 months of probation and six months of home confinement with an online restraint” in addition to “more than$ 103, 000 in sanctions, restitution and unique evaluations”.
Lavrenz gave an explanation of her level of conduct to Newsmax on Wednesday during a phone interview.
” I entered the Capitol through a door that opened in front of me.” I carried God’s presence into that building for about 10 minutes, walked out, did not shout, stayed within the lines, and was not stopped by any police officers and walked back out”, she said.
Lavrenz was detained less than a week before Christmas in December 2022, and prosecutors at the Department of Justice ( DOJ) had requested 10 months of confinement prior to this week’s sentencing.
The elderly defendant published a video of herself online speaking from Washington, D. C., before she was convicted.
” My own country is treating me like a criminal just because I think they stole my rightful president,” Lavrenz said. ” And just standing up for my country makes me a criminal, and it’s not right, it feels so weird to be here”.
Lavrenz is one of the hundreds of aggressively prosecuted by the Justice Department, which imposed severe fines and sentences on those who were present at the Capitol. In June, however, the Supreme Court ruled defendants who were charged with felonies under the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act as obstructing an official proceeding were unfairly prosecuted. In the more than three years since the riot, the statute had been used to prosecute more than 300 defendants for additional felonies, allowing prosecutors to seek up to 20 years of jail time.
In Fischer v. United States this summer, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a four-count lawsuit against former president Donald Trump, and the high court axed two of them. The commander-in-chief now enjoys legal immunity for official duties in office, which delayed the Republican presidential nominee’s criminal trial related to the Jan. 6 demonstrations until after the election, according to another Supreme Court decision from this summer.
