WASHINGTON — An Auburn woman admitted Thursday to two federal misdemeanors stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
Kimberly Sylvester was seen inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot. She admitted Thursday to two federal misdemeanors stemming from the riot. Submitted photo
Kimberly Sylvester, 59, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to charges of disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and parading, demonstrating or picketing in any of the Capitol buildings.
Each charge is punishable by up to six months in prison or a fine of up to $5,000, or both.
She could be ordered to be on probation for up to five years on each count.
Sylvester is free on her own recognizance pending sentencing, which is scheduled for June 13.
She was arrested in Portland on Dec. 13 and charged with four crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The two crimes she was charged with that are expected to be dismissed by prosecutors are entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, according to court documents.
Each of those two crimes is punishable by up to a year in prison.
Court records include 16 photos showing Sylvester in the Capitol building that day. In one of the images, she can be seen standing close to a police officer, leaning toward him and holding a cellphone, according to court documents.
On the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, a joint session of Congress had been convened to certify the vote count of the Electoral College of the 2020 presidential election.
As large crowd gathered outside the Capitol, the House and Senate adjourned to separate chambers, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding in the Senate chamber.
U.S. Capitol Police officers were stationed outside the locked building as the crowd grew in size and people eventually forced their way inside. Shortly afterward, they breached the Senate Wing door.
Sylvester is pictured in court documents entering through the door to the building that had been breached, according to court documents.
She was caught on camera walking through the North Crypt lobby wearing a purple puffy coat and a red, white and blue “TRUMP” ski cap with a pom-pom.
In other photos, she is shown moving through the lobby, inside Statuary Hall, near the interior door to the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and, lastly, just inside the Senate Wing door before leaving the building.
She had spent roughly an hour in the building, according to court documents.
Investigators determined that Sylvester’s cellphone had been in use inside the Capitol on the day of the riot.
Four days after the Capitol breach, a federal agent texted an image of a woman to Sylvester’s cellphone and asked her to confirm or deny she was the woman shown in the photo.
Sylvester responded, acknowledging she was the woman pictured in the photo and, during a later interview, admitted she had been in the building that day, according to court records.
She told agents that when she entered the building, the door had already been opened.
Sylvester can be seen in court documents going into the building while the emergency alarm was blaring and “with rioters still climbing through the broken window immediately to her left” at the Senate Wing door, according to court documents.
Sylvester told agents she watched as a group of people pushed and shoved on a door, and “that was when she realized she should not be in the” building and found a police officer and told him ‘she wanted to get out,” according to court documents.
The officer helped her down a staircase that led out of the building, she said.
She denied being involved in any rioting, theft or destruction of property of any kind.
Sylvester, who is a registered nurse, told FBI agents that she told police officers inside the building that she was a nurse and could provide aid as needed, according to court documents.
A half-dozen other Mainers have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot.
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
