Victoria White, the Minnesota woman beaten by Metropolitan Police Department officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was given a modified sentence of eight days of intermittent jail time and 90 days of home detention by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates on Nov. 22.
Judge Bates originally sentenced Ms. White to 10 days in jail on Nov. 20, but reconsidered the sentence and reduced her jail time to eight days. She will serve that time over four weekends and then face 90 days of home detention.
In August, Ms. White pleaded guilty to one count of civil disorder and aiding and abetting, a felony charge that carried up to five years in prison.
Ms. White, 41, of Rochester, Minnesota, had been posting frequent commentary on her case and other Jan. 6 topics on X, but her account disappeared shortly after her hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. However, her account was back online on Nov. 22.
Prosecutors said Ms. White helped boost up a rioter at the entrance to the Lower West Terrace tunnel, where the man kicked at police.
Her case was unique because, in addition to being a Jan. 6 defendant, she was a victim of a brutal beating by Metropolitan Police Department officers inside the Lower West Terrace tunnel just after 4 p.m.
Overhead security video and MPD bodycam footage show that Ms. White suffered at least 39 blows from steel batons and fists to the head, face, and neck.
Recently released bodycam shows her being speared in the ribs with a baton, grabbed by the hair, and shoved by a hand on her neck.
“People’s lies about us are causing myself and other January Sixers to endure unspeakable hell,” she said. “Justice for us, it seems almost impossible.”
Ms. White said she experiences flashbacks that seem to tie her Jan. 6 beating to the years of domestic abuse from her former husband.
“I’ve had those with my ex, where I'd be awake doing something as simple as laundry, and all of a sudden, I’m there, being choked to death and beat or punched,” she said.
“This was the feeling of all that. It was like those blows, but now in the tunnel.”
In addition to losing her jacket, shoes, and cell phone in the tunnel, the video shows Ms. White had her jeans pulled down, exposing her backside, while being shoved back and forth between police officers.
At the time, Ms. White’s attorney said the beating by police caused great trauma to Ms. White, who is a survivor of years of physical and verbal domestic abuse.
“Years of healing and progress were literally beaten out of her by the police on January 6th,” the attorney said in a statement.
“The scars and trauma related to past abuse were torn open again. A multitude of preexisting repetitive trauma injuries [were] aggravated to the point where she can never fully recover.”
Citing the time required to defend herself against federal criminal charges, Ms. White dropped her civil suit in November 2022.
