Former NYPD Officer Sentenced to 22 Months in Prison for Role in Jan. 6 Capitol Riot
Sara Carpenter studied at Marymount College before joining the NYPD in 2000. Her lawyers at trial said she had a history of mental health issues in part from her experiences on 9/11 and its aftermath. Prosecutors were unmoved and had sought a 66 month prison sentence. She was convicted of felony and misdemeanor charges by a federal jury in Washington D.C. in March and sentenced on Dec. 19.
A former NYPD officer and mother was sentenced to 22 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release for her role in the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the US Capitol building by supporters of former president Donald Trump who were seeking to stop the certification of Joe Biden.
Sara Carpenter, 54, was found guilty by a Washington D.C. federal jury of felony charges, civil disorder, and obstruction of official proceedings back on March 9 but was only sentenced on Dec. 19. She was also convicted of misdemeanor charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorder and disruptive conduct and several other charges.
Prosecutors had sought a much longer sentence of 66 months imprisonment while her own lawyers, citing past history of mental health problems, argued for two years of probation.
Carpenter resided in Richmond Hill in Queens. One former boyfriend told Straus News, “She was clearly a very talented artist. She wasn’t particularly political when I dated her. She was a typical Queens Catholic school kid, she was proud of being a cop.”
She attended Marymount College on the Upper East Side and studied art.
The former boyfriend said the only political discussion he recalled was she was annoyed with the zero percent pay increases for the NYPD under then mayor Rudy Giuliani, whom she had voted for.
At the time of her arrest, she had a teen son who attended a Catholic High School, continuing a tradition with her four siblings, attending local Catholic schools
Prosecutors charged she was among the Trump supporters at a Jan. 6 rally and made her way up the inaugural stage outside the Capitol and took action to get inside the building. Carpenter moved a bike rack that was marked “AREA CLOSED” and marched up the steps to the doors of the Capitol and entered the Capitol rotunda, where video showed her waving a tambourine and cheering on other protestors, prosecutors said.
Once inside she had refused direct orders from police to leave the building telling police, “no.” and “this is my house” as the police attempted to get protestors to leave the building.
She was said to have confronted police as she was trying to enter the Senate floor. At one point, police pepper sprayed the crowd. She was said to have swatted a police officer with her tambourine and according to prosecutors, said. “I’m a f*****g animal,” and after the police pepper sprayed the crowd was said to have responded, “this ain’t nothing,” and: “It ain’t stopping.” Prosecutors said she was inside the Capitol for about 30 minutes. It did not take long for the FBI to get on her trail after she drove back to her home in Queens. A relative tipped off the FBI on Jan. 7 that she was in the Capitol during the riot.
She was initially questioned by the FBI a few weeks later on Jan. 18, and apparently unaware of the seriousness of the future charges, acknowledged she was in the Capitol and even voluntarily turned over the tambourine she was waving that day.
When she finally exited the capitol on Jan. 6, she was said to have raised the tambourine over her head, apparently, believing the rioters had succeeding in stopping the certification of Joe Biden as president-elect. “The breach was made, and it needs to calm down now,” she said, while members of the House of Representatives who had been escorted from the floor of the chambers hunkered down waiting for police to clear the building. “Congress needs to come out,” she was said to have told the crowd outside. “They need to certify Trump as president. This is our house,” prosecutors said she had claimed.
The FBI raided her home on March 2 and seized a jacket she was weating on the day video showed her breaching the Capitol as well as backpack that contained a map of downtown Washington D.C. She was arrested in Jamaica, NY, on March 23, 2021.
In court filings, her lawyers had said, that Carpenter, the eldest of five children who grew up in Richmond Hill “has long struggled with mental health issues.” Friends she said had majored in art at Marymount College on the UES and was always seen as an extremely creative person.
She joined the NYPD in 2000. Her lawyers said she had suffered from severe depression after responding to the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and its aftermath and had been granted a disability retirement from the NYPD in 2004.
The FBI said in the 35 months since Jan. 6 2021, more than 1,230 individual have been charged in nearly all 50 states adding that investigations are still ongoing in other potential cases. At least 40 of the suspects arrested were said to have ties to law enforcement, the FBI stated.