CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Rachael Pert and Dana Winn, the Middleburg couple who pleaded guilty to charges related to participating in the January riot at the U.S. Capitol, were sentenced to probation and ordered to pay $500 in restitution.
The sentencing hearing for Pert and Winn of Middleburg was in-person in Washington D.C. on Monday.
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Pert was sentenced to 24-months probation and Winn was sentenced to 12-months probation.
Prosecutors had requested three months of home confinement, 24 months of probation, 40 hours of community service and $500 in restitution.
Both had pleaded guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Sentencing guidelines give a range of 0-6 months imprisonment in this case.
The memos detail their specific actions on Jan. 6 and their backgrounds, among other things. It states that the defendants’ military service is “laudable” and that it was taken into consideration, but also that their voluntary decision as a former servicemember to storm a guarded government building is “troubling” in light of their training.
It says that even though neither of them personally engaged in violence or property destruction during the riot, they both “encouraged and celebrated the events of the day” as they were happening, and that as they walked away further from the building and looked over the Capitol grounds, Pert said, “Wow, all those barricades are down now. Remember when we came in? There was barricades.” The memo states that Winn responded: “The patriots took ‘em.”
Winn’s attorney has also submitted his sentencing memo, asking for 12 months probation and community service.
Winn’s legal team cites his “lack of preparation or planning” prior to Jan. 6 and his “peaceful, non-destructive and non-violent” behavior that day, along with his “immediate cooperation with law enforcement officers when arrested” and his willingness to resolve the case. They argue that after watching media coverage of racial justice protests in the summer of 2020, and the claims about the legitimacy of the election, Winn decided to go to D.C. to “peacefully protest the results of the election” with no intent to do anything other than add his voice to the protests.
It says that at no time prior to Jan 6th did he think he was going to the Capitol, and that not until President Trump’s speech did he have any intention of going anywhere other than the Ellipse area, which is where the event was earlier in the morning.
In a section titled “Hindsight is 20/20″ they write “… in retrospect, Mr. Winn wishes he’d never come to D.C. at all…” and that he did not have any intention of stopping the vote.
Pert’s sentencing memo asks for 12 months of probation, community service and restitution. It states that she “wishes she had never gone to Washington, D.C. in January of 2021.”
It states that she went at the invitation of her then-fiancé, Winn, who had a friend who was going to go with him, but when the friend backed out, Pert didn’t want him to make the long drive alone. The memo states that she has “never been politically active or vocal.”
She and her attorney wrote that while she was in the building, the behavior of Pert and Winn was calm and peaceful and non-destructive. “Ms. Pert took nothing, damaged nothing, incited no one and was in the Capitol for no more than thirty minutes,” the memo writes. It also mentions that she has three children and mentions letters of support from people who know her and how she is as a single mother.