Doylestown Borough second district GOP committeewoman Dawn Bancroft was sentenced Thursday to two months of incarceration followed by three years of probation after entering a guilty plea to a Class B misdemeanor charge relating to her participation in the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol. Class B misdemeanors do not fall under the sentencing guideline range. Bancroft will surrender herself after Labor Day.
“We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain, but we didn’t find her,” said Doylestown’s Dawn Bancroft in a video as she and other insurrectionists rioted in the Capitol on Jan. 6.
This didn’t deter local GOP voters, as they chose Bancroft over her opponent Danielle Labrake in May’s primary election.
In seeking leniency prior to sentencing, criminal defense attorney Carina Laguzzi stated that Bancroft had already “been punished in several real and permanent ways” including that of a criminal record and “when Googling her name, she will always be tied to her actions on January 6th.”
Prosecutors scoffed at the assertion that having Bancroft’s name permanently associated with January 6, via Google searches, was punishing. “It feels like she’s a victim of everything but her own decisions” they said.
Judge Emmet Sullivan expressed concern both with the lenient sentence recommended by the prosecution and by the content of Bancroft’s video.
“Those comments, Ms. Bancroft, are not acceptable in a Democratic society. I feel bad for you. People act on those comments” said Judge Sullivan.
Prosecutors had sought 60 days imprisonment to be followed by three years’ probation, sixty hours of community service, and $500 in restitution.
In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors detail the activity of Bancroft saying she “twice unlawfully entered into and remained inside of the Capitol via the Senate Wing Door breach point.”
It was during her second entry into the building that Bancroft “remained inside the Capitol for approximately one minute and twenty seconds, and appears to film a video while inside.” That specific video footage was never recovered as Bancroft admitted deleting it. However, once outside of the Capitol, Bancroft filmed herself saying:
“Diana and I are on our way out but look at the way out. It’s crazy. [laughs] This is the part I don’t like because you can’t breathe, you can’t see, and if someone comes and was to drop a bomb, we’re dead, basically. I know, right? But we broke into the Capitol. We got inside. We did our part. We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the frickin’ brain. But we didn’t find her. But all is good.”
The video was anonymously submitted to the Upper Dublin Police on January 12, 2021, who forwarded the information to the FBI.
In seeking leniency, criminal defense attorney Carina Laguzzi responded to the Government’s sentencing memorandum describing Bancroft as having “sincere and great remorse for her actions in this case, asking for mercy.” Following her arrest, Bancroft, who operated a gymnasium, lost the CrossFit designation causing the loss of half her clientele.
