Are Capitol riot defendants getting off too easy? KS woman’s sentence raises concerns

Jennifer Parks this week became the first Kansan to be sentenced in connection with the Capitol insurrection, but her punishment is similar to others who have already learned their fate.

U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols on Wednesday sentenced Parks to two years’ probation, 60 hours of community service and $500 in restitution for her role in the Jan. 6 riot. The government had recommended one month of home detention, three years’ probation, 60 hours of community service and $500 restitution.

“Such a sentence protects the community, promotes respect for the law,” the government said in its sentencing memorandum for Parks, “and deters future crime by imposing restrictions on her liberty as a consequence of her behavior, while recognizing her early acceptance of responsibility.”

But those who monitor extremist groups wonder why the government is allowing defendants in what it is calling “a criminal offense unparalleled in American history” to plead guilty to low-level misdemeanors — and in most cases so far, recommending light sentences with little or no jail time.

“By not convicting them on the more serious charges, you’re sending a message that this type of behavior is permissible and can be tolerated,” said Daryl Johnson, a former senior analyst for domestic terrorism with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “And it emboldens these people even more so, because they see that the government’s kind of on their side.”

Another concern, Johnson said, is that “for all the minority groups out there, this really sends a message that there’s an institutionalization of white privilege.”

“If you’re white and commit these crimes, you’re going to get lesser sentences than if you’re a minority member committing these crimes.”

Parks, of Leavenworth, had faced a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty in September to one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Her sentencing hearing was held via video conference in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Even the chief judge presiding over the federal court in Washington, D.C., which is handling the cases — about 700 people have now been charged — has harshly criticized the government’s lenient plea deals with rioters.

“No wonder parts of the public in the U.S. are confused about whether what happened on January 6 at the Capitol was simply a petty offense of trespassing with some disorderliness, or shocking criminal conduct that represented a grave threat to our democratic norms,” Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell said during a sentencing hearing in late October, according to an Oct. 28 story in The Washington Post. “Let me make my view clear: The rioters were not mere protesters.”

In its memorandum, the government used strong rhetoric in describing the actions of Parks and her friend, Esther Schwemmer, on Jan. 6. It contended that they participated in “a violent attack that forced an interruption of the certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote count, threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential election, injured more than one hundred law enforcement officers, and resulted in more than one million dollars’ of property damage.”

The government added that while it recognized that Parks did not personally engage in or espouse violence or property destruction and accepted responsibility early on, “her conduct on January 6, like the conduct of scores of other defendants, took place in the context of a large and violent riot that relied on numbers to overwhelm law enforcement officers, breach the Capitol, and disrupt the proceedings.

“But for her actions alongside so many others, the riot likely would have failed.”

The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the government said, was like no other.

“It represented a grave threat to our democratic norms; indeed, it was one of the only times in our history when the building was literally occupied by hostile participants,” the memorandum said.

Picketing, demonstrating or parading at the Capitol in connection with the Jan. 6 riot is not like picketing at the Capitol on another day, the government said.

“Make no mistake, no rioter was a mere tourist that day.”

Johnson said the lenient sentences show why there’s a need for a federal domestic terrorism law in the U.S.

“We have no domestic terrorism law or statutes that add penalty enhancements for this type of politically motivated violence,” he said. “So it points to a weakness in our judicial system where even if there was a judge who wanted to slam the book down on these people, their hands are tied because these crimes don’t rise to the level of more serious, violent crimes.”

The government’s memorandum in Parks’ case, filed Dec. 1, includes tables indicating the penalties imposed for those who have been sentenced so far. The tables show that 37 of the 45 defendants listed have pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Of those 45 defendants, 19 have received sentences that included jail time. The incarceration lengths range from 14 days to 41 months, but most are for 60 days or less.

Two received the 41-month sentences: Scott Fairlamb, a former New Jersey gym owner who pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer during the riot, and so-called “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley. The most visible of the rioters, a shirtless Chansley stormed the Capitol and invaded the Senate chamber, wearing fur-covered horned headgear and carrying an American flag attached to a spear.

Parks, 61, and Schwemmer, 55, initially were charged with four misdemeanors. The three other charges were entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; and violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.

The government dropped those three counts as part of the women’s plea agreements. Those agreements included paying $500 restitution for damage to the Capitol building, which prosecutors say totaled about $1.5 million. Schwemmer is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 21.

Prosecutors said Parks and Schwemmer traveled together to Washington, D.C., from Kansas to attend the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. After the rally, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anita Eve told the judge Wednesday, the two walked to the Capitol and witnessed the chaos unfolding as rioters were climbing the walls of the building. Eve said the women took advantage of the chaos and soon entered the Capitol through an entrance where the doors had been broken open. Parks saw an injured man as they entered the building and tried to console him, Eve said. But that didn’t deter the women, Eve said, and they continued on to the second floor.

Eve said the two left the building after about 15 minutes, but only when law enforcement officers ordered them to go.

The government said Parks has no criminal history and prior to the riot had been self-employed as a piano technician for 38 years. It also noted that from the outset, Parks “expressed a desire to plead guilty, acknowledge her conduct, and promptly resolve her case.”

During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Nichols said the events of Jan. 6 “were unquestionably serious.”

“Ms. Parks and others entered the Capitol while a joint session of Congress was meeting to certify the results of the Presidential election,” he said. “Many of the rioters planned to come to the Capitol for the express purpose of interrupting those proceedings. Many used violence against law enforcement officers or engaged in vandalism.”

But Parks’ conduct on Jan. 6, he said, “is in my view relatively mild compared to others who have been sentenced for their conduct that day.”

Parks filed a memorandum asking for a sentence of just 12 months’ probation. The document said Parks comes from a military family — her father was a World War II veteran, her brother is a U.S. Air Force veteran and her husband is a U.S. Army veteran.

Included in the memorandum was a letter Parks wrote to Nichols.

“Since January 6th last year my life has turned upside down,” said the letter, dated Nov. 25. “I was devastated when I learned of the violence that had occurred at the Capitol that day, and that I had been a part of it.”

She said when she was told on April 23 that there was a warrant out for her arrest, “I was terrified.”

“I live a simple life; I worked part time, took care of my three grandkids, took care of my 90-year-old mother, and enjoyed being with my husband of 41 years,” she wrote. “Now all these things have changed to some degree. My mother was so traumatized by my arrest that we had to move her to a retirement home.”

After her arrest, Parks wrote, she received so many disturbing calls and texts that she decided to retire early and close her business.

In her letter to the judge, Parks said though the incidents she’s experienced since her arrest have been difficult and challenging, “I realize they are consequences of my actions on January 6th.”

“If I could have that day back, I would not have gone to Washington D.C., and I certainly would not have walked to the capitol,” she said. “I sincerely apologize for my actions. I believe I am wiser and more discerning now than I was then and I will spend years trying to make it up to the people I’ve disappointed.”