Prosecutors: Couple had 14-year-old 'in tow' at Capitol riot

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that a North Carolina pistillate deserves a situation condemnation for bringing her 14-year-old kid into the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.

Virginia Marie “Jenny” Spencer and her husband, Christopher, had the kid “in tow” erstwhile they joined different rioters who overwhelmed a enactment of constabulary officers, invaded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bureau suite and demanded introduction to the House chamber, prosecutors wrote successful a sentencing memo.

Prosecutors recommended 3 months successful situation for Jenny Spencer, who pleaded blameworthy successful September to parading, demonstrating oregon picketing successful a Capitol building. The misdemeanor is punishable by a maximum of six months imprisonment. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is scheduled to condemnation her connected Jan. 7.

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Christopher Spencer has pleaded not guilty.

Previous tribunal filings successful the lawsuit against the Spencers did not accidental that the kid was with them during the riot. In their memo, however, prosecutors cited the child's beingness arsenic a origin weighing successful favour of imprisonment erstwhile a justice sentences Jenny Spencer.

Jenny Spencer's “participation successful a riot that really succeeded successful halting the Congressional certification combined with the suspect involving her insignificant kid renders a condemnation of incarceration some indispensable and due successful this case,” they wrote.

According to prosecutors, Jenny Spencer saw constabulary shooting teardrop state and utilizing percussion grenades connected the mob earlier she and her hubby entered the Capitol with their kid astir six minutes aft the archetypal breach of the building.

Inside the building, the Spencers moved past constabulary officers who were trying to clasp backmost the assemblage and past concisely entered Pelosi’s bureau suite, the memo says.

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“Of note, Speaker Pelosi had unit members who were trapped wrong that suite arsenic the rioters called for Speaker Pelosi steps distant from them,” prosecutors wrote.

Afterward, the Spencers joined different radical of rioters who were trying to to participate the House chamber, wherever members of Congress were sheltering, according to prosecutors.

“Although Jenny Spencer was not astatine the beforehand of this radical and not vocal, for astir 9 minutes, she was portion of this peculiar mob, who were chanting ‘Stop the steal!’ and ‘Break it down!’ successful notation to the House Chamber door,” prosecutors wrote, noting that Jenny Spencer smoked a cigaret there.

After teardrop state was utilized adjacent the enclosure entrance, the Spencers moved into a hallway wherever a rioter attacked a radical of officers, according to prosecutors. They said Christopher Spencer shouted vulgarities astatine constabulary portion different rioters slid furnishings astatine the officers. The Spencers spent much than 30 minutes wrong the gathering earlier they exited onto a balcony, the memo says.

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Jenny Spencer is simply a stay-at-home parent to her 5 children, according to prosecutors. She was arrested successful Durham, North Carolina, successful February.

Lawyers for the Spencers did not instantly respond to emails oregon telephone calls seeking comment.

More than 670 radical person been charged with national crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot. At slightest 140 of them person pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor charges.

Prosecutors compared Jenny Spencer's lawsuit to that of Boyd Camper, a Montana antheral who brought his 10-year-old to the Capitol connected Jan. 6 but near the lad extracurricular with a person earlier storming the building. A justice sentenced Camper past period to 60 days imprisonment.

Prosecutors acknowledged that Jenny Spencer was among the earliest to judge responsibility.

“On the different hand, her actions connected January 6, 2021, specifically, being adjacent to convulsive activity, bringing her insignificant kid along, and minimizing her role, near a stain connected this nation’s past and underscores the request for circumstantial deterrence successful this case,” they wrote.

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