Ellwood City woman gets probation, fine for role in Capitol riot

A Lawrence County woman who spent just two minutes inside the Capitol during last year’s riot in Washington, D.C., will spend one year on probation and pay a $2,000 fine.

The government had been seeking home detention for Julia Jeanette Sizer, 39, of Ellwood City, arguing that there needed to be some punitive repercussions for her actions.

“There has to be a more meaningful restriction on her liberty,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Fifield.

U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper said that were Sizer to be sentenced to home detention, she would be able to leave home to go to work and take care of her three minor children.

“I don’t view home detention as particularly punitive,” he said, calling it neither fitting nor appropriate.

Sizer pleaded guilty on Nov. 4 and was sentenced Tuesday via videoconference for a single misdemeanor count of parading or demonstrating in a Capitol building.

The government said Sizer, who owns a nail salon, arrived at the Capitol building around 2:35 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, following a rally that day for President Donald Trump.

Once the crowd breached the doors of the Capitol, Sizer went inside at 2:48 p.m. and recorded on her cellphone. Fifield said Sizer only made it about 20 feet into the building before she turned around and left.

Cooper asked Sizer why she left so quickly.

“I turned around because it kind of snapped into my head, ‘What am I doing? This isn’t me,’” Sizer responded.

She told the court she was sick to her stomach when she left the Capitol that day.

“It wasn’t what I went there for,” Sizer said. “I’m ashamed. I’ve embarrassed myself, my family, my friends.”

She told the judge that she’s not a political person.

“I don’t want that to define the rest of my life,” Sizer said. “I really am truly sorry for my actions.”

Cooper asked Sizer if she was aware of when Ashli Babbitt was shot by a Capitol police officer that day. Babbitt died later from her injuries.

“She was shot at 2:42,” Cooper said.

“Wow,” Sizer responded.

Cooper noted that five people died during the riot, and since then four officers who responded have taken their own lives.

“I say that to make sure you understand how dangerous it was and how dangerous it could have been if law enforcement hadn’t shown so much restraint,” he said.

In asking for home detention, Fifield told the court that Sizer lied when she was first asked by the FBI if she had been at the riot that day.

Defense attorney Robert Mielnicki told the court that his client panicked, and then almost immediately called him. Mielnicki then called the FBI and arranged for Sizer to give a voluntary statement, where she admitted her involvement.

Mielnicki asked for a short period of probation.

“She’s deterred,” he said. “This is never going to happen again.”

Fifield acknowledged that Sizer’s actions at the Capitol were minimal compared to those of other defendants, that she has no criminal record and has a good reputation in her community. Still, she said, her behavior showed an appalling lack of respect for the law

“Without people like Ms. Sizer, intent on breaching the building, none of this would have been possible,” Fifield said. “She should have known better.”