Lockport couple faces sentencing for Jan. 6 riot, attorney says Trump deserves some blame

An attorney for a Lockport woman said former U.S. President Donald Trump’s demagoguery was partly to blame for why the woman and her husband decided to participate in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

In a sentencing memorandum Wednesday, Daniel Hesler, attorney for Kelly Lynn Fontaine, 54, said the “simplest explanation” for why Fontaine and her husband, Bryan Dula, 53, went to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, was “because Donald Trump invited them.”

Hesler said Trump and “others working in concert with him did everything in their power” to make people believe the election was stolen and “helping Donald Trump helped America.”

“[Trump] strategically appealed to the same kinds of impulses in [Fontaine and Dula] that in previous generations inspired hundreds of thousands of Americans to enlist to fight and die in World War II,” Hesler said.

Hesler argued there is “probable cause” to believe the gathering of Trump supporters and their “attack on the Capitol” was one “prong of a larger scheme” to keep Trump in power despite losing the 2020 election.

“[Trump] needed ordinary people like [Fontaine and Dula] to be there to make the whole thing seem more normal, as if all of this was a grassroots reaction to actual election irregularities,” Hesler said.

On June 10, Fontaine and Dula pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of disorderly or disruptive conduct on the grounds or in the buildings of the U.S. Capitol. The Lockport couple also pleaded guilty to another misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol building.

“There was a concerted effort by Trump and his allies to persuade ordinarily law-abiding people that coming to Washington and demonstrating in order to prevent the peaceful transition of power was a reasonable and patriotic thing to do,”

—  Daniel Hesler, attorney

Prosecutors have requested Fontaine serve 21 days of incarceration and Dula serve 14 days of incarceration. They also recommended 36 months of probation for the couple, 60 hours of community service and $500 in restitution.

Hesler and Dula’s attorney, A.J. Kramer, have asked U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington to sentence the couple to probation. Walton has allowed the couple to appear on video for their Oct. 1 sentencing hearing.

In a sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Smith said Fontaine and Dula “participated in the [Jan. 6, 2021] attack on the [U.S.] Capitol.”

Smith said the incident was a “violent attack” that forced an interruption of Congress’s certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote count, threatened the “peaceful transfer of power” after the 2020 election, injured more than 100 police officers and resulted in more than $2.9 million dollars in losses.

Hesler said Fontaine and Dula “acknowledge that they had options, they made poor choices, and should have known better.” Hesler said the couple takes full responsibility for the actions but “this discussion is not entirely inapt.”

“There was a concerted effort by Trump and his allies to persuade ordinarily law-abiding people that coming to Washington and demonstrating in order to prevent the peaceful transition of power was a reasonable and patriotic thing to do,” Hesler said.

Hesler also blamed a “closed news bubble, a sense of just being part of the crowd,” and the actions of people like Trump who wanted people like Fontaine and Dula to “provide cover for their coup attempt.”

Smith said “one of the most important factors” in Fontaine’s and Dula’s cases is that they were present outside the doors to the Capitol building while “other rioters were scaling the building, violently breaking doors and windows to get in, and were being tear-gassed by police.”

But Fontaine and Dula “chose to continue forward and enter the Capitol through one of the broken doors,” Smith said.

Smith said Fontaine and Dula told federal investigators that they believed the 2020 election result was unjust but they apparently had no desire to participate in the violence.

However, Smith noted that Fontaine took a selfie during the riot and gave a “thumbs up to the chaos surrounding her, with the area of the Senate Wing Doors and the Parliamentarian Door visible in the background.”

“Despite being surrounded by this chaos and lawlessness, Fontaine and Dula elected to not only stay in the restricted area, but to join others in the mob, take celebratory selfie photos, and unlawfully enter the Capitol building itself after others had smashed the glass of the doors and forced their way in,” Smith said.

Smith said that after the couple left Washington, Fontaine used social media to minimize the “severity of the acts that day,” spread misinformation about what occurred and “publicly spin a narrative that she and the other rioters weren’t at fault.”

Smith said Fontaine posted on a social media, “[Expletive] your Unity, we will NEVER forget and you will be exposed and pay! Tick tock traitors!”

Smith said Fontaine also posted on social media, “Please don’t believe what [mainstream media] is continuing to brainwash the sheep with unless you were physically present you have no idea what you are talking about.”