By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
A Kentucky woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to resisting, impeding, and interfering with law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon and other crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The U.S Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia says Shelly Stallings, 43, of Morganfield, pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to all counts in an indictment charging her with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon, interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder, and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, among other charges.
According to court documents, Stallings and three co-defendants sprayed a chemical irritant, pepper spray, at a line of police officers attempting to secure the area of the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol Building. The co-defendants, including her husband Peter J. Schwartz, 49, have pleaded not guilty to all charges. Stallings was arrested on Feb. 16, 2022, in Owensboro.
She pleaded guilty to a total of seven charges. They include five felonies: assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon; interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
In addition, Stallings pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor offenses: disorderly conduct in the Capitol Grounds of Buildings and committing an act of physical violence in the Capitol Grounds or Buildings.
She is to be sentenced on Jan. 13, 2023. Stallings faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on the charge of assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon and up to an additional 36 years for the other offenses, as well as a potential fine.