A federal judge sentenced a Chicago police officer and his sister Wednesday to three months of home detention following their conviction on misdemeanors last year for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
A jury last summer convicted the officer, Karol Chwiesiuk, and his sister, Agnieszka. The siblings spent roughly 10 minutes inside the Capitol during the riot. But the feds say they ignored the damage and violence outside as they made their way in.
Prosecutors also claim Karol Chwiesiuk disregarded his oath as a “public servant of the City of Chicago” when he later gave false testimony at trial.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., handed down the sentence. She also gave the Chwiesiuks three years of probation and ordered them to perform 200 hours of community service and pay $500 in restitution.
The Chwiesiuks are among more than 40 Illinois residents to face federal criminal charges in connection with the attack on the Capitol. Karol Chwiesiuk is the only Chicago police officer among them, and his position increased the profile of the case.
Photos purportedly taken on Jan. 6, 2021, show that he wore a Chicago Police Department hoodie that day.
When criminal charges were first filed against Karol Chwiesiuk in June 2021, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the allegations a “total disgrace.”
“This isn’t about one police officer charged with a heinous assault on our democracy,” she insisted. Rather, Lightfoot said it was about sending a “clear and unequivocal message” that “we will have no tolerance for hate. Period.”
Karol Chwiesiuk is listed as inactive and on an unpaid leave of absence, according to the Chicago Police Department. Prosecutors have said he also previously worked as a correctional officer at the Cook County Jail.
Nishay Sanan and Cece White, the Chicago-based attorneys who represent the Chwiesiuks, acknowledged in a court memo that “the conduct underlying the charges could not be more serious” despite the misdemeanor convictions. But, they said, “the nature of the offense is a polarizing one.”
“The vast majority of Americans see the events of January 6, 2021, as a riot or an insurrection, the likes of which have never been seen in our country,” the defense attorneys wrote. “The small minority who participated in January 6, 2021, viewed it as a protest, or for the more active participants, a fight to protect this country.”
They went on to argue that the Chwiesiuks “went to the Capitol grounds much later” than others — they didn’t walk through the Senate wing door until 45 minutes after it had been breached.
“While on their way to the Capitol and while inside of it, the Chwiesiuks did not injure or attempt to injure anyone, nor did they engage in boisterous rhetoric which might encourage other protestors,” the defense attorneys wrote. “What the Chwiesiuks participated in was far more serious than their individual conduct in terms of consequences for our nation.”
Still, prosecutors pointed to Karol Chwiesiuk’s status as a Chicago police officer to discredit his claim “that he imagined he could be inside the Capitol despite all the signs around him to the contrary.”
“One of the most important factors in Agnieszka and Karol Chwiesiuk’s case is their decision to enter the Capitol after having witnessed the damage and violence occurring outside the Capitol building,” prosecutors wrote. “Both ignored the rioters flushing their eyes out after exposure to a chemical irritant, the broken windows, and the blaring alarm.”
Later, Agnieszka Chwiesiuk allegedly described the event as “the most American thing” she had seen in her lifetime. And Karol Chwiesiuk allegedly told someone in a text that “It was epic. Super fun. The optics are bad but f--- it at this point ya know.”
Karol Chwiesiuk was also accused of entering the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
The Chwiesiuk siblings rented a car, drove from their family home in Chicago and arrived in Washington early on Jan. 5, 2021, according to the feds. Meanwhile, Agnieszka Chwiesiuk sent her brother two screenshots, records show. One asked, “How many other patriots are headed to DC to build FORT TRUMP?” Another listed times and locations of planned events.
The night before the riot, Karol Chwiesiuk took several photographs of himself around the Capitol’s restricted perimeter, prosecutors noted.
“These details are important because they show that the Chwiesiuks knew how to plan, knew how to look up information, and knew where the planned events were taking place,” prosecutors wrote. “More specifically, they knew that nothing and no one authorized them to enter the Capitol.”
