Wabash Valley resident sentenced for role in insurrection

Jun. 23—A Greene County woman has been sentenced to 36 months of supervised probation for her participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

She is the first person sentenced in connection to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Anna Morgan-Lloyd, 49, of Bloomfield, appeared today in a video hearing before Judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia District Court, and she pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building in violation of federal law.

"I apologize to the court, the American people, and my family," Morgan-Lloyd said during the hearing. "I'm ashamed it became a savage display of violence that day."

A plea agreement submitted by the government dismissed three other charges related to Morgan-Lloyd entering the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Morgan-Lloyd was also ordered to pay $500 restitution, a $10 court assessment.

The maximum prison sentence she had faced was six months, with another 18 months of probation following release from prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein noted the agreed 36 months of supervised probation is a longer term than the maximum sentence for that charge.

Defense attorney Heather Shaner pointed to Morgan-Lloyd's lack of a criminal history, noted the woman's dedication to her Indiana family, and said the defendant cooperated from the start with investigators who contacted her about her actions at the Capitol.

"She's among the least culpable people who were there that day," Shaner said.

Morgan-Lloyd admitted to traveling to Washington, D.C., with a few friends to attend a rally in support of then-President Donald Trump. In a letter she wrote to the court, she said she did not participate in destruction of government property or in physical violence.

The investigation determined Morgan-Lloyd and her friends were inside the Capitol about 10 minutes that day. They posted photos to social meeting showing themselves inside a Capitol hallway.

The government also has charged her friend, Dona Bissey of Greene County, with the same four criminal counts related to entering the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Bissey's next court hearing is set for July 19 before Judge Tanya S. Chutkan in the the District of Columbia District Court.

Attorney Shaner wrote that Morgan-Lloyd has read the books "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," "Just Mercy" and "Schindler's List" — at Shaner's advice — to educate herself about government policy toward Native Americans, African Americans and European Jews. She said Morgan-Lloyd also watched films on racist incidents in America and watched a series on the U.S. Constitution to "learn the American history she was not taught in school."

Judge Lamberth commended Morgan-Lloyd for doing "everything right" by cooperating with the FBI and the investigation.

Lamberth also said it was "not an accident" that the demonstration turned violent, and it was intended to halt the government. The public has a right to be outraged, he said.

The judge also dismissed claims by some, including U.S. lawmakers, that the Jan. 6 events were no more than the acts of tourists.

"I don't know what planet they were on, but there were millions of people in this country that saw what happened on Jan. 6 and that saw what you saw and what you just described: a disgrace to our country," the judge said.

Making a a lengthy statement on his reasoning for the sentence he imposed, Lamberth said some other defendants charged in connection with the insurrection will claim they did nothing wrong and should not be punished.

In contrast, Lamberth said, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led peaceful protests that became violent when police attacked the protesters, who did not fight back. Those protesters were jailed and paid the penalty for their protest.

The judge of 33 years said he has also been astonished by some members of Congress who have since claimed the Jan. 6 protesters who entered the Capitol were tourists, calling those claims "rewriting history."

Lamberth said he thinks Morgan-Lloyd's penalty is commensurate to her crime, so the supervised probation is justified.

"I don't want to create the impression that probation is an automatic outcome for pleading guilty," Lamberth said of insurrection defendants, "because it's not going to be."

Lisa Trigg can be reached at 812-231-4254 or at lisa.trigg@tribstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @TribStarLisa.

The Associated Press also contributed to this report.