A hotel key card found three days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol led to last week’s arrest of a Perquimans County woman on charges related to the incident.
Sandra Lee Hodges, 61, of the 100 block of Nanthala Court West, Hertford, was arrested Thursday, Feb. 1, by FBI agents at her home in Albemarle Plantation and charged with four federal criminal offenses tied to the events of Jan. 6. That day, supporters of former President Donald Trump breached the U.S. Capitol in hopes of disrupting a joint session of Congress from certifying the Electoral College votes.
Hodges was arrested after a warrant was issued on Jan. 26 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She is charged with one federal count each of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, picketing and demonstrating in a Capitol building.
Perquimans County Sheriff Shelby White said Wednesday his office was contacted by the FBI and asked to assist in Hodges’ arrest. He said deputies accompanied FBI agents to Hodges’ residence and observed her being taken into custody but he had no other information.
A criminal complaint unsealed last Thursday in federal court provides details of the federal investigation into Hodges and her subsequent arrest.
Hodges was identified by police after a key card belonging to the high-end Mandarin Oriental Hotel was discovered Jan. 9, 2021, during a cleanup of the Capitol grounds. Investigators believe Hodges dropped the card on the West Plaza of the Capitol building during the afternoon of Jan. 6.
The U.S. Capitol Police investigated the card and discovered it was connected to a room that Hodges reserved under her nickname “Sandy” for the period of Jan. 5-7, 2021.
The criminal complaint includes a narrative of Hodges’ movements, starting at 2:12 p.m. when she joined a crowd gathering on the West Plaza. The timeline concludes at 3:33 p.m. when Hodges was seen exiting the Capitol. Also included are several photos investigators say show Hodges interacting with other Jan. 6 rioters outside and inside the Capitol. The photos were pulled largely from video filmed by other participants, including a man named Anthime Gionet, a far-right “celebrity” known by the nickname Baked Alaska.
Two FBI agents interviewed Hodges at her home on April 6, 2023, according to the federal criminal complaint. During the interview, Hodges said she left Hertford on Jan. 5 to travel to Washington to hear Trump’s speech scheduled for the following day. Along the way, she stopped in Virginia Beach, Virginia, to pick up a friend she had met online a few days earlier. She did not remember the person’s name, the complaint states.
Hodges told the FBI agents that she overslept the morning of Jan. 6 and when she left the hotel, she met a large crowd of Trump supporters who told her the former president had finished speaking. Hodges told the agents that she “became swallowed by the crowd” and went with them to the Capitol, where she was said she was “sucked into the building,” according to the complaint.
Hodges said she walked around inside the Capitol briefly and visited two different rooms and sat down in the second room. Hodges decided to leave the room after suspecting something wasn’t right and left the Capitol with the assistance of police officers who were escorting people out of the building.
One of the agents who interviewed Hodges presented two photographs to her, each of which was taken inside the two rooms she entered. According to the complaint, Hodges identified herself in each photo. In one photo she is seen sitting on a couch in the hideaway office of an unidentified U.S. senator and is rummaging through her backpack. In the other photo she is standing up, wearing a red Trump hat and holding a can of what appears to be Coca-Cola.
Hodges breached the Capitol building through a door of the Senate Wing at around 2:53 p.m., according to investigators. At around 3:13 p.m. Hodges and several other participants are seen in a video filmed by Gionet entering a Senate conference room. Gionet is heard cautioning the crowd not to break anything, to which Hodges is heard replying, “I’m not breaking anything. This is our house.”
According to investigators, Hodges remained inside the Capitol building for approximately 40 minutes.
Hodges is scheduled to make a first court appearance at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui. The hearing will be conducted online via video teleconference.
Hodges registered as a Republican in July 2018 and lists the Nanthala Court location in Albemarle Plantation as her address, according to N.C. State Board of Elections records. She is also a registered nurse with an active license issued April 26, 2011, by the Florida Department of Health. The license is set to expire in July.
Hodges was ordered to be released after she was processed. As part of her pretrial terms and services, she is subject to supervision by the U.S. Parole Office. She is not allowed to possesses a firearm or to travel outside the Eastern District of North Carolina, except for court appearances or visits with attorneys in the District of Columbia, court documents state.
According to court documents, the Federal Public Defender has been directed to assign Hodges court appointed legal representation.
According to an NPR database, 33 residents of North Carolina, including Hodges, have been arrested in connection with the Capitol riots as of Feb. 2. Of those, just five are women. In all, 1,272 people nationwide have been arrested and of them 779 received sentences.
Most Popular
Comments / 0