Former Bentleyville couple sentenced to federal prison for role in Jan. 6 riot
The former Washington County couple seen rummaging through government documents on the Senate floor during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in the riot, although to vastly different lengths of incarceration.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly on Thursday sentenced Dale “DJ” Shalvey to serve 41 months in prison, while Tara Stottlemyer was ordered to spend eight months incarcerated. After each is released, they will serve 24 months on supervised release.
A video posted online showed Shalvey and Stottlemyer wearing green helmets while inside the Senate chamber and going through paperwork on Sen. Ted Cruz’s desk moments after the senators were rushed from the room. Shalvey was also accused of stealing a letter from Sen. Mitt Romney meant for former vice president Mike Pence.
Shalvey was charged in February 2021, while Stottlemyer was indicted and arrested several months later. A third co-defendant in the case, Katharine Morrison, who has no known ties to this area, was also sentenced Thursday to serve eight months in prison.
Shalvey, 38, and Stottlemyer, 37, each pleaded guilty in October to obstructing of an official proceeding, while Shalvey also pleaded guilty to an additional charge of assaulting or impeding certain officers for throwing an object at a DC Metro police officer outside the Capitol. Kelly sentenced Shalvey to the lower end of the sentencing guidelines, but he sentenced Stottlemyer to the prison length requested by federal prosecutors.
Shalvey is originally from Wheeling, W.Va., while Stottlemyer grew up in the Charleroi area. They were living in Bentleyville and managing a regenerative farm in Centerville at the time of the attack, but the couple has since married and moved to Conover, N.C., where they’ve started a new farm named Free Folk Pastures.
In their pre-sentence memo, federal prosecutors included pictures of Shalvey and Stottlemyer on the Senate floor, along with photographs of the documents they captured while rummaging through desks, including the letter from Romney meant for Pence.
“Shalvey was on the West Front and assaulted a MPD Officer there. He also was present when the police broadcast a loud dispersal order on the West Front,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memo. “Nonetheless, he still breached the Capitol, advanced deep into the building to the Senate Chamber, and searched Senators’ desks, while remaining in the Capitol for almost an hour. He also destroyed a document he obtained there and his phone that he had at the Capitol. In addition, he lied to the FBI regarding assaulting an officer at the Capitol.”
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors said Stottlemyer has shown no remorse for her actions.
“Stottlemyer’s criminal conduct, witnessing rioters fight and overwhelm the police on the West Front, disobeying the command to leave Capitol grounds, and corruptly obstructing of an official proceeding by entering the Senate Chamber, searching for, and photographing, Senate documents, is the epitome of disrespect for the law,” prosecutors wrote in their memo.
In asking for leniency, the couple’s defense attorneys noted that Stottlemyer recently gave birth to a girl in March. The couple lost a son shortly after his birth, although it was not known when that occurred.
Shalvey’s defense attorneys also wrote in their pre-sentence memo that in addition to managing the couple’s farm, he has a woodworking business. Shalvey has not caused any issues while free on bond, his attorneys stated in their memo.
“In contrast to many other January 6 defendants, Mr. Shalvey has not boasted nor advertised his participation on social media,” Shalvey’s defense attorneys said. “To the contrary, he has expressed an immense amount of remorse for his actions and even his presence on that day.”
It was not known when Shalvey and Stottlemyer would report to prison, or if they would serve their sentences at the same time.