A Kansas woman has been sentenced by a U.S. District Court to two years probation and 60 hours of community service for her involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Esther Schwemmer was also ordered by the court to pay $500 in restitution for damage to the Capitol, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia announced on Monday, The Kansas City Star reported.
“I’m deeply ashamed of my actions on that day,” an emotional Schwemmer told Judge Dabney Friedrich, the Star reported.
Apologizing to the court, she added, “Nothing about it was Christ-like. … I hope with time I can forgive myself.”
Friedrich told Schwemmer that “none of us are defined by the worst mistake we made,” adding, however, that although Schwemmer pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, “it is nonetheless a serious offense.”
In a letter to the judge, the Jan. 6 rioter apologized to the Capitol Police and members and employees of Congress “for what they must have endured on that day and its lasting impact,” the Star added.
Friedrich said Schwemmer’s remorse seemed “genuine.”
According to court documents filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in September, Schwemmer and her friend Jennifer Parks traveled from Kansas to Washington to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6.
The DOJ added that they entered the Capitol “through an entry where the doors were broken and open. They went up a round staircase to the second floor and walked around for approximately 15 minutes.”
Schwemmer and Parks took pictures inside the Capitol and eventually left when told to do so by a Capitol Police officer.
More than 700 people have been charged in connection with last year’s insurrection, which sought to prevent the certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory.