WASHINGTON (AP) — A Massachusetts doctor who punched a police officer during a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Thursday to nine months in prison followed by nine months of house arrest.
Jacquelyn Starer was in a crowd of rioters inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when she struck the officer with a closed fist and yelled a profane slur.
Starer told U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly that she was not proud of her actions that day, including her “regrettable encounter” with the officer.
“I take full responsibility for my actions that day, and I really wish reason had prevailed over my emotions,” she said.
Starer also turned to the officer she assaulted to apologize. The officer, identified only by her initials in court documents, told the judge she feared for her life as she and other officers fought for hours to defend the Capitol from the mob of Donald Trump supporters.
“Are you really taking responsibility for your actions or are you just going to say, ‘It wasn’t my fault. Fight or flight’?” the officer asked Starer before she addressed the court.
Starer, 70, of Ashland, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in April to eight counts, including one count of felonious assault, without reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of two years and three months for Starer, a doctor who primarily practiced addiction medicine before her arrest. Starer’s lawyers asked the judge to sentence her to house arrest instead of incarceration.
Online licensing records show that Starer agreed in January 2023 not to practice medicine in Massachusetts. The state issued him a medical license in 1983.
Starer attended President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 before joining the crowd outside the Capitol. She entered the building through the Rotunda doors about 15 minutes after they were forced open.
In the Rotunda, Starer joined other rioters in an attempt to push past police officers guarding a passageway leading to the office of Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House of Representatives. Starer managed to push through other rioters to reach the front of the police line, where she yelled at the officers.
When another rioter tried to restrain her, Starer grabbed that person’s arm, pulled him down and then pushed him against the police line. When one of the officers pushed Starer back, she turned and punched the officer. The assault was captured on police body camera footage.
“The rioters responded to the assault by becoming more aggressive and then charged the police line,” a Justice Department prosecutor wrote.
Starer’s lawyers said she became angry at the rioter who tried to restrain her. She instinctively struck the officer’s arm in response to the push, her lawyers said. They argued that Starer was reacting to the push and was not motivated by the officer’s job status.
“Dr. Starer deeply regrets this entire interaction and fully acknowledges that it constitutes criminal conduct on his part,” his lawyers wrote.
The judge said Starer rushed toward the police line “like a heat-seeking missile.”
“It’s a pretty concerning thing given the threat to the physical safety of our members of Congress,” Kelly said.
The judge asked Starer where she was trying to go.
“The short answer is, ‘I don’t know,’” she replied.
Starer appeared to be struggling with the effects of the pepper spray as she left the Capitol, about 15 minutes after entering the building.
“She received assistance from other rioters, including one rioter dressed in camouflage and wearing a helmet with a military-style patch that read ‘MILITIA,’” the prosecutor wrote.
Starer’s lawyers said she acknowledged she had likely treated her last patient.
“Her inability to do the work she loves so much has left a huge void in her life that she is struggling to fill,” they wrote.
Nearly 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riots. More than 900 have been convicted and sentenced, with about two-thirds receiving prison sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years.
