Federal Judge Sentences 69-Year-Old Grandmother With Cancer to 2 Months in Jail For ‘Parading’ in the Capitol on January 6 By Debra Heine
A federal judge has sentenced a 69-year-old Idaho grandmother and cancer patient to two months behind bars for parading in the Capitol, a misdemeanor.
Pam Hemphill pleaded guilty in January to one count of demonstrating, picketing, or parading in a Capitol building. The diminutive senior was photographed inside the Capitol Rotunda.
Hemphill, a former drug and alcohol counselor, flew to Washington, D.C. from Idaho on Jan. 5 hoping to see the results of the 2020 presidential election overturned. She was arrested in August of 2021.
At her sentencing hearing Tuesday, Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, flatly told Hemphill that she will be serving time behind bars.
In addition to the 60 days in jail, Hemphill will spend three years on supervised release. Pursuant to her plea agreement, she will also have to pay $500 in restitution toward the estimated $2.7 million in damages to the Capitol.
“I’m heading to the prison! Just know your prayers and support is keeping me going emotionally and spiritually! Love you guys dearly!” she tweeted on Tuesday.
She reported to the FCI Dublin, a low security correctional facility near San Francisco on Wednesday.
In an interview with Newsmax host Greg Kelly Tuesday night, Hemphill said she was “really frightened” and “scared.”
“I’ve never been to jail—ever,” Hemphill said. “I’m really frightened—I’m scared.”
She said she was pushed into the building, and never picketed or paraded.
“But if that’s what they wanted me to plead guilty to, so I thought okay, my lawyer advised me,” Hemphill told Kelly.
Government prosecutors say the 69-year-old cancer patient pushed through police lines three different times as the crowd outside the Capitol grew violent, and encouraged rioters to push their way inside the building while exaggerating how “frail” she was. Prosecutors did not show video of Hemphill chiding another protester for stealing a book while inside the Capitol building.
“Don’t steal, don’t harm,” she can be heard saying in video footage. “That’s not good.”
During Hemphill’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors alleged that when police offered to help her, she “presented herself as a frail woman who had been overwhelmed and injured by the crowd, and not as the agitator she truly is.”
The grandmother had had cancer surgery prior to coming to Washington, and can be heard telling officers that she had “40 stitches.”
According to Law and Crime, Prosecutor Katherine Nielsen played video during the hearing that showed Hemphill interacting with police officers who were trying to help her.
“I had to get out of that crowd,” Hemphill is heard telling an officer. “I had surgery.”
“I understand, I don’t want you being hurt,” the officer said.
“I’m a journalist, they took my breath out,” Hemphill added.
“I’m sorry for this situation,” an officer replied, before telling Hemphill to head to a gate for refuge.
Prosecutors said Hemphill didn’t take their advice because she was allegedly seen in a subsequent video encouraging the crowd to press forward into the Capitol.
“Just come on in,” she allegedly yelled at the crowd. “It’s your house, whose house does it belong to?”
“You just come in, come on in, come on, have fun, you just come in, it’s all you do,” she is allegedly heard saying. “This is your house. Your house!”
Prosecutors claimed that Hemphill presented herself as frail to the police to distract them from doing their jobs.
However, video footage shows her clearly in distress, and out of breath, telling officers that she needs to sit down.
“Are you hurt? What were you doing?” an officer could be heard saying.
“I got her,” another officer said. “Come on. Are you ok?”
“I got 40 stitches,” Hemphill could be heard telling the officers, referring to the cancer surgery she had had prior to coming to Washington.
Nielsen, the prosecutor, argued that “these interactions were an attempt by Hemphill to draw police away from protecting the Capitol building as rioters pushed forward.”
“When another [police] officer offered protection, she falsely stated she tried to calm down the crowd,” Nielsen said. “These are not the actions of a citizen journalist. These are the actions of a rioter.”
Hemphill, Nielsen insisted, “repeatedly asked the police for help while consistently undermining their efforts. She needlessly drew resources from the police at a time they were desperately needed.”
“As tempting as it is to be lenient in this kind of situation, what I have discerned is it is such a serious offense because it’s such a serious event in the history of our country,” Judge Lamberth said. “I have to agree with the government’s recommendation in this case. I believe that there has to be a penalty when there is a serious offense like this.”
In contrast, Ray Epps, the Arizona man who is seen on video repeatedly urging protesters to storm the Capitol, has not been sentenced to any jail time, and has ironically been defended in the corporate media as someone who is being unjustly harassed by conservatives who think he’s a fed.
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