WASHINGTON — Christine Priola says Jan. 6, 2021 was the day that changed her life forever.
The Willoughby resident and former Cleveland Metropolitan School District therapist is hoping that a 10-page letter sent to U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan will help her get a more lenient sentence Friday for her involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
In July, the 50-year-old Priola pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding. She faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison.
According to court documents, Priola was spotted making her way to the U.S. Capitol grounds while carrying a large sign expressing her views before illegally entering the restricted area on the east side of the Capitol Building.
After joining the front line of the riot in support of former President Donald Trump, Priola is alleged to have climbed the steps before entering the Capitol Building through the East Rotunda Doors. Shortly after the first rioters overcame law enforcement officers guarding the entrance, she went inside and moved to the Senate chamber and entered the restricted floor area.
Inside the chamber, she carried the same sign she was spotted carrying outside. She was in the Senate chamber for about 10 minutes and inside the Capitol Building for approximately 30 minutes.
Priola is also alleged to have deleted her data for photos, videos, chats, and messages from her cellphone from approximately Jan. 4 through Jan. 7, 2021.
In the letter to Judge Chutkan, Priola writes, "At the beginning, I used to think, 'I wish that I had food poisoning that day' or 'I wish that I had a broken leg that day." ...so she would have avoided committing a crime.
Now she's claiming full responsibility and asking the judge for mercy ahead of her Friday's sentencing.
Priola goes on to write that she had turned to news and politics to excessively fill a void. "I began to realize I had been trying to fill a void from the sadness and extra time on my hands due to my daughter moving out and the confusion and loss I felt with my biological father dying."
Footage from 2021 shows Priola outside her old Willoughby home, shouting ideologies that align with QAnon conspiracy theories of government child sex trafficking. She says she was forced to sell that home amid the fallout from the riot and moved into her mother's basement.
Priola was employed by CMSD as an occupational therapist at the time of the riot before resigning one day later. In her resignation letter, she cited her desire to switch career paths to focus on exposing human trafficking and pedophilia and not wanting to take a COVID-19 vaccine in order to return to in-person school. She added that she did not support paying union dues that she claims are used to "fund people and groups that support the killing of unborn children."
She was arrested one week later.
The charges facing Priola are serious according to former federal prosecutor Subodh Chandra. "The court really has a lot to weigh here," he told 3News. "They have to weigh the fact that this individual has at least belatedly accepted responsibility and done so in a very dramatic way and then compare it to the conduct and the planning and the seriousness and the message that needs to be sent to the public."
Chandra adds the court will be considering not only Priola's punishment, but a sentencing that will deter others from doing the same.
"The world is watching this and the judge knows it. This is not sort of one of those intimate moments in a court room where it's just one individual who's made a mistake having to account for their mistake, this is one individual that was part of a movement to destroy our democracy," Chandra says.
Priola, meanwhile, hopes her plea won't fall on deaf ears.
"I am truly sorry for my actions and participation in the events of January 6th. I am truly sorry that I caused so many people to suffer, and I am truly sorry for all those who were hurt that day, especially those who died. I hope someday they can forgive me," she wrote.
Priola's daughter, mother and aunt also wrote letters to defend her character, calling her compassionate and hard-working. Priola said she has begun paying reparations and plans to continue doing so and has been helping her elderly family members and doing kind deeds, turning her life around since January 6th, 2021.
Her lawyer said she only ended up in the Senate chambers by chance, claiming she was only there to peacefully protest.
You can read Christine Priola's entire letter to Judge Chutkan below.
3News' Ben Axelrod contributed to this story
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