Next week, a 44-year-old Pittsburgh woman, Jennifer Heinl, will be sentenced for her part in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Back in November, Heinl pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of demonstrating in a Capitol building. The Federal government is asking that Heinl spend two weeks in jail, spend three years under probation, and pay $500 in restitution.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that prosecutors point to Heinl lying to the FBI when they first contacted her, and subsequently showing no remorse when being interviewed a second time. Heinl’s attorney disagreed with this assessment, saying his client was "extremely remorseful, embarrassed, and ashamed," and that her personal circumstances should be taken into account.
According to Heinl’s lawyer, she is the mother of two children with health issues. The lawyer also pointed out that Heinl lost her nursing job as a result of her crimes and, sadly, her marriage. Her husband, a police officer named Michael Heinl, reportedly told her not to go to D.C. for the rally that day. Michael Heinl did not participate in the insurrection. He didn’t even go to D.C. In fact, Michael Heinl worked his normal shift in Pennsylvania on Jan. 6, 2020.
A month after the insurrection, Heinl’s husband filed for divorce, according to WPXI. They are now in the process of finalizing the divorce.
Heinl’s relationship to another man, Kenneth Grayson, who has also been charged, and with whom she met up in D.C., was in part how she was identified. Grayson, who had already been identified, had Facebook messages with Heinl planning on meeting up at the Stop the Steal rally. The 51-year-old Grayson was live-streaming his lawbreaking on Jan. 6, and had written some big words about storming the Capitol. Grayson was arrested pretty early, and very quickly turned to blaming Trump’s rhetoric for his puffed-up chest.
It seems that Jennifer Heinl was allowed out on bond, and remained at home. According to WTAE, Heinl’s husband—the law enforcement veteran who was at work while she was “stopping the steal” and had already filed for divorce—was kind enough to agree “to store his firearm in a lockbox outside of their home” as part of her release.
In the Statement of Facts document filed by Federal investigators last year, investigators say that when Heinl was first contacted by the FBI, she lied about her proximity to the rioting going on outside of the Capitol building on Jan 6. She also reportedly lied to FBI agents when she told them she had not illegally entered the Capitol building on Jan. 6. There is, of course, video of it all; Heinl can clearly be seen in the audience to the violence outside of the Capitol building, as well as using her phone to record the action inside of the Capitol building—for at least 45 minutes.
Prosecutors point to Heinl reportedly telling investigators that she only went into the building because she believed it would be warmer and safer inside. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Fedor pointed out that it "defies belief that someone seeking safety would head toward the forefront of a riotous mob breaching the Capitol and take a souvenir photograph along the way."
Heinl was arrested in March after witnesses were able to identify her from a series of images taken at the Capitol that day. After pleading not guilty to numerous accounts, Heinl reached a plea deal in November. Her sentencing date is set for March 22.