A Colorado grandmother was sentenced to a six-figure fine plus a year of probation for praying at the Capitol grounds on Jan. 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 restricted building; disorderly conduct and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; disorderly conduct in the Capitol; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in the Capitol.
According to the Denver Post, Lavrenz, who avoided jail time, “was sentenced Monday to 12 months of probation and six months of home detention with an internet restriction” in addition to “more than $103,000 in fines, restitution and special assessments.”
Lavrenz explained the extent of her conduct at the Capitol during a telephone interview with Newsmax on Wednesday.
“I went through a door that opened in front of me, and I walked through the Capitol. 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 arrested less than a week before Christmas in December 2022, and prosecutors at the Department of Justice (DOJ) had requested 10 months incarceration before 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 believe that … 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 hundreds aggressively prosecuted by the Justice Department, which demanded heavy fines and sentences for individuals 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. The statute had been exploited to charge more than 300 defendants with additional felonies in the more than three years since the riot, allowing prosecutors to seek up to 20 years of jail time.
The high court’s ruling in Fischer v. United States this summer also took an axe to two of the four charges pressed against former President Donald Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Another decision from the Supreme Court this summer determined the commander-in-chief enjoys legal immunity for official acts in office, which delayed the Republican presidential nominee’s criminal trial related to the Jan. 6 demonstrations until after the election.
