ST. LOUIS — A Franklin County woman who was pictured during the U.S. Capitol riot with a broken sign that identified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office turned herself in to the FBI on Tuesday.
Emily E. Hernandez, 21, first appeared with her lawyer, Ethan Corlija, in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia L. Cohen via Zoom to hear the charges against her.
Hernandez was charged last week in U.S. District Court in Washington with five misdemeanors, including knowingly entering a restricted building without authority, demonstrating in the Capitol, stealing, and knowingly engaging in disorderly conduct in a restricted building with intent to impede the government.
Pictures and videos from inside and outside the Capitol show a smiling Hernandez holding up a piece of a sign from Pelosi’s office. Charging documents say tipsters told the FBI that it was Hernandez, and also said she’d posted pictures of herself in the Capitol via Snapchat.
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Neither prosecutors nor a pre-trial official recommended she be jailed until trial, and she was ordered released on her own recognizance.
Hernandez and Corlija spent almost an hour inside the FBI building downtown Tuesday.
Corlija spoke briefly to reporters as they left. He did not dispute that Hernandez was the woman seen in the pictures. He declined to comment on where the sign fragment is now located, whether she went to Washington with others and her reason for being in the Capitol.
He pointed out that she was not charged with threatening anyone or damaging anything. “This is obviously a mistake but she’s ready to move past it,†he said.
“She’s the girl next door. It’s an unfortunate situation and it’s one she didn’t want to put herself in,†Corlija said. “She’s willing to move beyond it, do the things she needs to do to make it right and get on with the rest of her life.â€
No date has been set for her next court appearance in Washington.
Citizen sleuths on social media have identified at least two other people with possible ºüÀêÊÓƵ area connections in the Capitol, including a man in a ºüÀêÊÓƵ Blues hat pictured near her. A man wearing a jacket with the logo of a ºüÀêÊÓƵ-area company was fired a month ago, a company representative told the Post-Dispatch Tuesday. The representative said the company is sharing information about the man with the FBI.
Supporters of President Donald Trump broke through police lines, smashed windows and entered the Capitol, with many intending to disrupt the vote to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election. Others threatened lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence.
A police officer was killed and a protester was fatally shot as she was climbing through a window past a barricade. Three others also died.
More than 125 people have been arrested so far on charges related to the riot, and there has been political and public relations fallout for those accused of encouraging the crowd, including U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri.
Scenes of violence at U.S. Capitol shock world.