Physician sentenced to 9 months in prison for punching police officer during Capitol riot

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Massachusetts medical doctor who punched a police officer during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Thursday to nine months of imprisonment followed by nine months of home confinement.

Jacquelyn Starer was in a crowd of rioters inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when she struck the officer with a closed fist and shouted a profane insult.

Starer told U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly that she isn’t proud of her actions that day, including her “regrettable encounter” with the officer.

“I accept full responsibility for my actions that day, and I truly wish reason had prevailed over my emotions,” she said.

Starer also turned to apologize to the officer whom she assaulted. The officer, identified only by her initials in court filings, 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.

“Do you really take 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 a felony assault charge, without reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.

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Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of two years and three months for Starer, a physician who primarily practiced addiction medicine before her arrest. Starer’s attorneys asked the judge to sentence her to home confinement instead of incarceration.

Online licensing records indicate that Starer agreed in January 2023 not to practice medicine in Massachusetts. The state issued her a medical license in 1983.

Starer attended then-President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 before joining the mob outside the Capitol. She entered the building through the Rotunda doors roughly 15 minutes after they were breached.

In the Rotunda, Starer joined other rioters in trying to push past police officers guarding a passageway to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Starer pushed through other rioters to reach the front of the police line, where she yelled at officers.

When another rioter tried to hold her back, Starer grabbed that person’s arm, pushed it down and then shoved against the police line. When one of those officers pushed Starer backward, she turned around and punched the officer. The assault was captured on video from a police body camera.

“Rioters reacted to the assault by becoming more aggressive, and they then charged the police line,” a Justice Department prosecutor wrote.

Starer’s attorneys said she became upset with the rioter who tried to hold her back. She instinctively punched the officer’s arm in response to being pushed, her lawyers said. They argued that Starer was reacting to the push and wasn’t motivated by the officer’s occupational status.

“Dr. Starer deeply regrets this entire interaction, and fully recognizes it constitutes criminal conduct on her part,” her attorneys wrote.

The judge said Starer rushed toward the police line “like a heat-seeking missile.”

“That’s a pretty ominous 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 pepper spray when she left the Capitol, approximately 15 minutes after entering the building.

“She received aid from other rioters, including a rioter clad in camouflage wearing a helmet with a military-style patch with the word ‘MILITIA,’” the prosecutor wrote.

Starer’s attorneys said she recognizes that she likely has treated her last patient.

“Her inability to do the work she loves so much has left a very large hole in her life which she struggles to fill,” they wrote.

Nearly 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 900 of them have been convicted and sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.