A federal judge has found an Olyphant woman guilty of charges in the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui found Deborah Lynn Lee guilty Wednesday in Washington, D.C. after a non-jury trial that began last week.
Lee was charged with misdemeanor counts of entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
In all, Lee faces up to three years in prison and fines of up to $210,000.
Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 27, a U.S. attorney’s office spokeswoman said in an email.
In August, on Lee’s 58th birthday, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed a more serious felony count that could have meant up to 20 years more in prison. Faruqui took over the case after Lee asked to have a U.S. magistrate judge preside at the trial.
Prosecutors charged Lee and hundreds of others with illegally smashing their way into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Lee was part of a mob that tried to storm the U.S. House chamber, prosecutors alleged.
“I’m live. I’m at the Capitol doors. We’re all the way inside the building. We’re trying to get in. We got the glass broken,” Lee said in a video posted on her Facebook account, according to the federal complaint. “I broke into congress (sic) and there were guns on us,” she wrote in private messages to other Facebook users. “It’s our house. Our capital (sic). We had every right to occupy.”
Lee remains free until sentencing. She is the only one of 10 Jan. 6 suspects to ask for a trial. Seven of the others have pleaded guilty and served short prison sentences or remain on probation. Two who pleaded guilty face sentencing at an undetermined date.
