Prominent South Jersey anti-vax advocate sentenced to jail for directing rioters in Capitol attack

A prominent right-wing and anti-vaccine activist from South Jersey will serve 10 days behind bars for her role in some of the most brutal fighting during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Federal prosecutors likened Stephanie Hazelton, 51, of Medford — who also goes by the moniker Ayla Wolf — to “a commander on the battlefield” as she marshaled rioters toward the tunnel entrance to the Capitol’s west side.

“This is the battle,” she shouted in videos of the melee later posted online. “Let’s go! Move forward! They cannot stop us all!”

That clash for control over the entrance to the Lower West Terrace lasted over two hours, during which rioters repeatedly assaulted, threatened, pushed and beat police trying to keep them at bay.

“Hazelton went to Washington dressed for violence,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher D. Amore said in court filings last week. “She came for revolution and participated in an assault on democracy that resulted in death, injury and destruction.”

Hazelton’s sentence makes her the latest New Jersey resident sentenced to incarceration for playing a role in the unprecedented riot, which interrupted the Congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s victory, caused more than $2.8 million in damage and left hundreds of officers injured.

But the punishment — handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates at a hearing in Washington — could have been far worse. Prosecutors urged the judge to send Hazelton to prison for 11 months, at the top end of the suggested federal sentencing guidelines for the lone count of civil disorder to which she pleaded guilty last year.

But Bates — crediting Hazelton’s remorse and the fact that she did not enter the Capitol or assault officers herself — ordered her incarcerated for a fraction of that time.

Hazelton’s lawyer, Nicholas D. Smith, described a short sentence as a just outcome for his client, whom he described as a stay-at-home mother who was raised on a religious commune outside of Trenton with no plumbing or electricity.

“She deeply regrets her conduct and apologizes to the law enforcement officers who struggled in that chaotic scene,” the lawyer wrote.

Hazelton — the founder of New Jersey for Medical Freedom, the state chapter of an anti-vaccine network — rose to local prominence organizing demonstrations against proposed legislation in the Garden State, including a bill that would have required school children to get the flu shot.

In 2020, she led members of the group who draped signs over New Jersey highway overpasses that read: “COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers are exempt from liability.” And as the public face for “Reopen New Jersey,” she led rallies that spring that made national headlines.

She was among the protesters who gathered outside Atilis Gym, the Bellmawr facility that defied Gov. Phil Murphy’s shutdown orders and drew attention for her particularly violent rhetoric about fighting a “war for freedom.”

“This war is just as important as our founding fathers,” she said to a crowd at the time. “We are the militia. We are the founding fathers. We are America.”

Prosecutors said Thursday that Hazelton adopted a similarly militaristic tone in the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack.

Weeks after the election, she fraudulently boasted on Facebook that she had news from a “friend on the inside” that then-President Donald Trump had won “but the Deep State froze the election and they’re desperately trying to stuff ballots.”

Days before she traveled to Washington to protest the congressional certification of the 2020 vote, she posted again.

“There are police [that] are not on our side, especially in DC,” she wrote. “A lot of them wish they were marching with [Black Lives Matter] in that city and hate us. We have to watch our backs.”

Video that later surfaced on social media showed her marching toward the Capitol with members of the New Jersey Sons of Liberty, donning tactical gloves and a black scarf bearing the organization’s skull logo.

She filmed their approach as they reached police lines, shouting “I don’t care about their tear gas!”

During the two-hour battle for control of the Capitol’s lower west entrance, prosecutors say Hazelton could be seen in videos entering and exiting the fray again and again as rioters clashed with officers, beating them with poles and sticks and grabbing their police shields.

When she realized the crowd still wasn’t breaching the police lines, she called for reinforcements.

“We need more men,” she shouted while waving rioters toward the entrance, according to video of the fracas. “Keep pushing! Men! We need men! Not women!”

In court Thursday, Hazelton claimed she was acting in self-defense after one of the officers hit her with a nightstick and crushed her finger — an injury that later required reconstructive surgery.

She pleaded with Bates to spare her a prison term, given her role as the primary caretaker for her homeschooled 11- and 12-year-old sons while their father is frequently away on business trips.

Prosecutors, however, scoffed at that suggestion.

“Crimes carry consequences,” they said. “That fact cannot be a carte blanche to escape the consequences of criminal conduct. … Moreover, her family circumstances did not stop or prevent her involvement in the riot in the first place.”

In addition to her jail term, Hazelton was ordered to serve two years’ probation upon her release and pay $2,000 in restitution.