Attorney: Feds retaliated against Olyphant woman after plea deal rejection in Jan. 6 Capitol riot case

May 23—A lawyer for the Olyphant woman charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot accuses federal prosecutors of retaliating against her because she refused a plea agreement.

Attorney John M. Pierce wants the entire case against Deborah Lynn Lee dismissed because, he argues, prosecutors added a felony charge last month to retaliate against her for demanding a trial on the four original, less serious misdemeanor charges and rejecting plea deal offers.

The prosecution violated the U.S. Constitution by adding the felony, Pierce wrote in his dismissal motion.

"It is a violation of the due process clause for the government to retaliate against defendants who choose to exercise their constitutional rights," Pierce wrote.

The felony, obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting (obstruction), was added in a new indictment handed up April 5 and carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. None of the misdemeanors are punishable by more than a year in prison. A May 22 trial was canceled. A judge set a series of deadlines for filing motions and a final deadline of June 30. No trial date is set.

In the dismissal motion, Pierce included an email from Assistant United States Attorney Alexander Diamond to another Lee defense lawyer.

"There isn't any new case evidence, only what you already have (though I am preparing a comprehensive folder to share everything with you again shortly)," Diamond wrote in the email. "However, as we prepared for trial, the government's understanding of the evidence evolved."

Pierce calls that "vindictiveness and retaliation masked as trial preparation."

Diamond has not responded to the dismissal motion.

Prosecutors charged Lee, 56, in August 2021, with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

After someone opened a door to the Capitol from inside, Lee was among the first 30 to 40 to enter, according to the complaint filed against her.

"I'm live. I'm at the Capitol doors. We're all the way inside the building. We're trying to get in. We got the glass broken," Lee said in a video posted on her Facebook account, according to the complaint.

"I broke into congress (sic) and there were guns on us," she wrote in private messages to other Facebook users. "It's our house. Our capital (sic). We had every right to occupy."

An FBI special agent wrote that Lee was part "of a crowd that forcefully pushed back a line of uniformed police officers in the vicinity of the Chamber of the House of Representatives." Lee didn't touch the officers, but was "part of the group that pushed the line of officers backwards in order to occupy additional space inside the Capitol." She chanted "We want Trump" with other protesters at the chamber, according to the complaint.

Pierce contends nothing in the complaint suggests his client "committed any crime."

"Being amidst a crowd which 'surges forward' against a police line is hardly a felonious crime of obstruction," he wrote.

For the first time, Pierce offered details of Lee's background. He described her as "a decorated partially disabled veteran, a mother of three and a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and a 10-year member of (the) American Legion."

Pierce said Lee served three years in Korea and 11 years in the Army Reserves. During the Persian Gulf War in 1990 and 1991, Lee served as an assistant to instructors at the Army War College at Wesley, Delaware.

"She raises funds for veteran causes and conducts funeral escorts for veterans," he wrote. "Deb Lee is a model citizen with no criminal history."

Pierce said Lee retired as the first female corrections officer promoted to lieutenant at the state prison at Waymart. She was also the first woman to serve on its emergency response team.

"Despite her injuries and disability, Deb Lee has run and helped organize dozens of 5K races for charity and fundraising," Pierce said. "And despite her career in corrections, Ms. Lee has been an advocate for the wrongly convicted. She is a member and officer of Bikers for Justice, a group that supports and raises funds for wrongly convicted inmates and escorts defendants, family and witnesses to court proceedings to aid in exonerations."

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.