WASHINGTON (CN) — One of the first Capitol rioters to plead guilty was sentenced to three years of probation on Friday, with the judge noting her compliance with FBI, strong community ties and nominal involvement in the siege.
“Her role when she got there was about as minimal as it gets,” U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman said of Valerie Elain Ehrke, who made it only 15 feet into the halls of the U.S. government on Jan. 6.
Before their mission was waylaid by the deadly mayhem, lawmakers had been gathered in the Capitol on Jan. 6 for a ceremony that would certify then-President Donald Trump's loss of the 2020 election to his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden. Trump offered no evidence to support his claim that the election was stolen from him, but Ehrke was among droves of his supporters who turned up in Washington on Jan. 6 for a "Stop the Steal" rally where he urged them to "fight like hell."
After the rally, Ehrke, who hails from about 45 minutes north of Sacramento, California, initially went back to her hotel room. Upon seeing news coverage of the ongoing riot, however, Ehrke took off for the Capitol building and went inside.
Her personal insurrection lasted only about a minute. “We made it inside, right before they shoved us all out," Ehrke posted to Facebook alongside a video of her the Capitol entrance. "I took off when I felt pepper spray in my throat! Lol.” A screenshot of the post appears in the government's sentencing memo, which emphasizes that Ehrke's Facebook profile image at the time consisted of a flaming letter Q, indicating her allegiance to the far-right conspiracy group QAnon.
Ehrke pleaded guilty in June to one count of parading, picketing or demonstrating in a Capitol building. In a letter to the court, Ehrke detailed her volunteer work and community projects in her small town of Arbuckle, California, and asked that her charges be dropped so she could continue to contribute positively to society.
“I am a small town girl who loves my town, my state and my country,” Ehrke wrote. “It is because of this love of country that I decided to attend the January 6th, 2020 rally in D.C.”
Ehrke wrote that she didn’t realize that she was breaking the law when she entered the Capitol building.
“This situation really blindsided me because I never had intent to harm or obstruct what was happening inside the Capitol building,” Ehrke wrote. “I was not aware of the madness that was happening in the Senate chambers. I do not condone that behavior and I am deeply sorry that people lost their lives on that day.”
Other residents of Arbuckle also wrote to the court in support of Ehrke — letters that Friedman said he took to heart.
The judge noted that probation shouldn’t be the default sentence because of the charges, but that it was appropriate in Ehrke’s case because of her community contributions and minimal involvement.
Ehrke will also be required to do 120 hours of community service and pay $500 to the architect of the Capitol.
Earlier on Friday, another Washington judge heard a guilty plea from Kenneth Kelly to one count of parading, picketing or demonstrating in a Capitol building. He faces up to six months in prison.
Kelly, an emergency medicine doctor from Florida, mixed up his government buildings during the riot, texting his friends, “Patriots stormed the White House!” and “Tree of liberty was watered today!”
The physician mentioned the White House in several other texts to his friends, including one that said, “Inside the White House via breaking in windows.”
Kelly admitted to U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that he entered the Capitol knowing it was a secure building, and that it was a mistake to mix up the building names.
“I probably didn’t have the education to name the building correctly, it’s embarrassing to say,” Kelly told the judge.
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