WASHINGTON (AP) — A Colorado bed-and-breakfast operator who promotes herself online as the “J6 praying grandma” was sentenced on Monday to six months of home confinement in her Capitol riot case after the judge railed against “offensive” comments she has made about the criminal justice system.
Prosecutors had sought 10 months behind bars for Rebecca Lavrenz, 72, whose misdemeanor case has become a cause célèbre among conservatives critical of the Justice Department's Jan. 6 prosecutions. Prosecutors accused her of “profiting off the celebrity of her conviction" with an slew of media appearances questioning the integrity of the court system and the jurors who convicted her.
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui told Lavrenz that while hers is among the less serious Jan. 6 cases, “it's still a grave offense.” Raising his voice at times, the judge sounded incredulous as he pressed her lawyers about her media comments denouncing the Jan. 6 prosecutions as “fake trials” and D.C. jurors as biased.
“That does nothing but reduce public confidence people have in the system," Faruqui said.
Faruqui told Lavrenz he didn't think sending her to jail “was going to help." But he fined her $103,000, saying he needed to send a message that defendants cannot profit off their “egregious conduct.” He sentenced her to one year of probation, with the first six months in home confinement. During her home confinement, the judge ordered her to stay off the internet.
Lavrenz has been embraced by former President Donald Trump, who has made attacking the Jan. 6 prosecutions a central piece of his campaign to return to the White House. After her conviction in April on misdemeanor charges, Trump said on social media that she was “unfairly targeted” by the Justice Department and shared a link to a website where people can donate money to her legal fund.
Before receiving her sentence, Lavrenz told the judge 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.
Her attorneys asked for a sentence of probation with no prison time, noting that Lavrenz did not participate in any violence or destruction of property at the Capitol. In court papers, the defense accused prosecutors of trying to stifle her free speech.
“Outrageously, the government seeks to imprison this peaceful, nonviolent, elderly, retired, first-time offender for months in jail merely because Lavrenz has been forthright in informing her fellow Americans about the criminal justice system for January 6 defendants,” attorney John Pierce wrote.
Pierce said after the sentencing that they are pleased she got no jail time, but will be appealing her conviction. He said they believe the fine imposed by the judge to be “one of the largest in history for a misdemeanor case.”
Lavrenz, of Peyton, Colorado, has used a crowdfunding website to raise over $230,000, much of which she received after her trial conviction this year, prosecutors said. Like many other Capitol riot defendants, Lavrenz has used the GiveSendGo crowdfunding website to raise money from supporters.
Lavrenz has used some of the donated money to embark on a cross-country speaking tour, during which she has defended the mob’s attack and lied about her own conduct, prosecutors said. Her attorneys said she has spent over $120,000 on legal fees, a $95,000 retainer for an appeal and $9,000 in court-related travel and hotel expenses.
Lavrenz watched other rioters breach bicycle rack barricades and overrun a police line on the Capitol's Rotunda steps, prosecutors said. She chanted, “It’s our house, you can’t take our house," before entering the building, and she spent approximately 10 minutes inside the Capitol, prosecutors said.
At her trial, she testified that she walked down a hallway inside the Capitol because she was looking for members of Congress, prosecutors said. Prosecutor Terence Parker told the judge that there's “no question” that she wanted to stop the certification of President Joe Biden's victory.
“She has all but promised to do it all over again," Parker said.
More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 900 of them have been convicted and sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years. Hundreds of people, like Lavrenz, who did not engage in violence or destruction were charged only with misdemeanor offenses.
