Two Illinois sisters get probation after claiming riots at Capitol | Main stories

CHICAGO (AP) — Two Chicago-area sisters have been sentenced to 30 months of probation after pleading guilty to participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Federal prosecutors requested that Trudy Castle and Kimberly DiFrancesco serve at least 30 days in jail, followed by 36 months of probation and 60 hours of community service.

But instead, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., sentenced them Tuesday to probation and ordered each to pay $500 in restitution and $2,000 in fines. Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Castle, who said she runs a downtown Chicago high-rise, pleaded guilty to one count of demonstrating, demonstrating or picketing at the Capitol building. DiFrancesco, who lives in Elmhurst and has a master’s degree in business, pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Authorities said the women entered the Capitol through a door in the Senate wing on Jan. 6, 2021, made their way from the northwest side of the building into the elevator lobby near the Visitor Center and then passed through a security door.

The sisters then headed to the lower level visitor center, where DiFrancesco appeared to be talking on a portable radio, authorities said. The sisters later left the building and met with a man federal officials identified as Castle’s grown son.

The women later tried to get back inside the Capitol, but law enforcement pushed the rioters back and the women appeared to have left, officials said.