HARTFORD, Conn. — A mother and daughter from Canterbury pleaded guilty to a trespassing charge Tuesday for climbing into the U.S. Capitol with scores of others during what turned into a riot by supporters of former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6 last year.
The women, Jean Lavin, 56, and her daughter, Carla Krzywicki, 19, said they went to Washington on a bus trip with a Facebook group to hear Trump speak about his election loss. After missing the speech because the bus driver got lost in New York, they followed the crowd to the Capitol, climbed into the Senate side of the building on an upended bicycle rack and wandered around for about six minutes.
According to charging documents in the case, an unidentified “complainant” tipped the FBI that the women had entered the Capitol after seeing a photograph Krzywicki posted to her Facebook account, with the explanation that they were making “history,” and had “come for the officials that run our country.” Krzywicki said in court Tuesday that she removed the posting after realizing the seriousness of the Capitol breach and the likelihood that she faced arrest.
The two face a maximum of six months in jail, five years of probation and a $5,000 fine when they are sentenced on April 22. Each also agreed to pay $500 in restitution for what federal prosecutors said is the $1,495,326.55 of damage to the Capitol caused by the riot.
Lavin and Krzywicki pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Under their plea bargain agreement, federal prosecutors dropped three other charges involving entering a restricted building and disorderly, disruptive and violent conduct.
Lavin carried a homemade sign that read “Trump Won” on one side and complained about seven states “hijacking our election” on the other. Under prodding by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather, Lavin conceded her sign could have inspired rioting, but that was not her intention.
“At the time, it meant I didn’t believe the election was being calculated correctly,” Lavin told the judge.
She said she didn’t want to carry the sign into the Capitol, but couldn’t find a safe place to leave it.
After they were identified by law enforcement, the women provided the FBI with their cellphone numbers and investigators used the information, among other things, to track their progress as they wandered through the Capitol. They climbed in through the Senate Wing door, were in the Capitol Crypt for about six minutes and walked to the Orientation Lobby before leaving the way they came in.
“Krzywicki stated that at one point, while inside the Capitol, her mother fell and that was when they both decided to leave the area,” according to one of the charging documents.
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