Here's How A Florida Singer, Vocal Teacher Got Sentenced To Federal Prison Friday

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Florida singer and vocal coach that federal prosecutors said was a leader in urging rioters to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to six years in federal prison.

Audrey Ann Southard-Rumsey, 54, of Spring Hill, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta on Friday. In addition to the prison term, Mehta ordered 36 months of supervised release and restitution of $2,000 to the Architect of the Capitol..

Southard-Rumsey was found guilty on Jan. 27 of obstruction of an official proceeding, three counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers and three counts of civil disorder.

At her sentencing hearing Friday, she was expected to read a written statement taking responsibility for her actions.

Instead, she tossed her statement aside and told Mehta, "I have grievances since they don’t listen to us at the polling place. They don’t listen to us little people in the regular world. When you decide to throw me in prison for doing my duty, think of what I now have to give up."

She then began listing accusations against the government and the way the protesters were treated during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

According to news reports from Friday's hearing, federal prosecutors originally requested a six-year sentence in anticipation of Southard-Rumsey providing a declaration of responsibility.
However, when she refused to read the declaration and began listing grievances, federal prosecutors recommended a 10-year sentence.

Mehta chose to keep the original recommendation of six years in federal prison.

The FBI said Southard-Rumsey was one of the leaders of the in the Capitol breach intended to disrupt the electoral vote count for the November 2020 presidential election in which Joe Biden was declared the winner over former President Donald Trump.

According to the evidence presented by the FBI and Department of Justice, following the election, Southard-Rumsey used social media to start a "revolution" and "worked with others on a declaration calling for the abolition of the Democratic Party and the seating of a new administration."

The FBI said Southard-Rumsey posted several social media messages inciting violence including “HANG the TRAITORS!!!”, “Arrest and hang these traitors” and “Go to their work and home, pull them out by their teeth and hang them for treason!”

On Jan. 5, 2021, Southard-Rumsey traveled from her home in Spring Hill with three other people to Washington, D.C., and, on Jan. 6, attended Trump's rally at the Ellipse and then marched toward the Capitol building with other protesters, according to the FBI.

Around noon, Southard-Rumsey uploaded a photograph of herself on the Capitol grounds to her Facebook page, writing, “DC taking it back!!” She then broadcast a live video of herself on Facebook stating, “Standing in front of the capitol building, ready to take it. As soon as we get enough people up here. Storm the capitol building, it’s gonna be fun.”

According to the FBI investigation, around 2 p.m., Southard-Rumsey was at the front of the barricades when hundreds of rioters pushed through the police barricades at the east front of the Capitol building, forcing officers to retreat partway up the steps leading to the rotunda doors.

The FBI said Southard-Rumsey was front and center as the large crowd confronted the police officers.

According to court testimony, Southard-Rumsey encountered a Capitol police officer on the stairs leading to the building and tried to rip his riot shield out of his hands. She entered the Capitol building through the east rotunda door at 2:26 p.m.

The FBI said Southard-Rumsey then walked to the statuary hall connector area, stopped and stood in front of a U.S. Capitol police sergeant and several other USCP officers. She was captured on video yelling, “Tell (then-Speaker of the House Nancy) Pelosi we are coming for that (expletive)” and “There’s a hundred thousand of us, what’s it going to be?”

At some point during her confrontation with the police sergeant, the FBI said Southard-Rumsey grabbed a flagpole, which she held in her hands and pressed against the sergeant’s chest.

The FBI said she began pushing the sergeant, causing him to fall backward into the first set of doors leading to the House floor. As a result, the doors flew open and the sergeant struck the back of his head on the base of a marble Lafayette statue. At the door to the House chamber, Southard-Rumsey yelled, “We’re coming for you!”

Southard-Rumsey was removed from the area near the House chamber by officers and made her way to the rotunda. She joined a group of people who were attempting to gain access to the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and pushed a group of police officers down a set of stairs. She then returned to the rotunda where officers attempted to clear the area of intruders.

The FBI said Southard-Rumsey grabbed two officers’ batons and threatened them with a metal stanchion in each hand.

The FBI later identified her from videos and social media posts and arrested Southard-Rumsey on June 2, 2021. On Jan. 29, a jury found her guilty of the charges.

Before the arrest, Pasco County residents watching news reports about the Capitol breach on television easily picked Southard-Rumsey out of the crowd due to her reputation in the community as a singer and vocal coach.

Originally from Santa Rosa, California, Southard-Rumsey was a vocal music teacher at Garden Music in Winter Garden from 2006 to 2008 before relocating to Florida's west coast where she was active in the Stage West Playhouse community theater in Spring Hill, performing in productions including the 2010 production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

The soprano went on to win the Ibla Grand Prize Bellini International Vocal Competition in Sicily, Italy, in 2012, which led to an invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, New York City, in 2013.

From August 2013 to August 2016, she was a vocal teacher at the Westchase Music School on Countryway Boulevard in Tampa. She went on to teach voice and beginning piano at Music Matters Production in New Port Richey and Rising Star Music in Spring Hill.

From October 2018 to January 2020, she worked as a voice and piano teacher at The Lesson Company in Wesley Chapel and, in January 2020, she opened the Voxx Mechanix LLC in Spring Hill where she taught voice and piano lessons.

"Singing and vocal instruction are my passion and purpose in life," she wrote on the description of her new business. "Sharing my knowledge with others and watching them grow vocally is my honor and inspiration. I enjoy the journey of the students as they work through the skills, finding their own natural voice and style."

According to friends, Southard-Rumsey wasn't especially politically oriented until the election of Barack Obama as president in 2009.

At that time, she joined the Tea Party and became active on Facebook, posting criticisms and conspiracy theories such as claiming Obama wasn't born in the United States and illegally held the presidency.

On Aug. 8, 2020, she attended a counter-protest to a Black Lives Matter demonstration at Sims Park in New Port Richey, posting her involvement on her Facebook page, which has since been taken down.

That peaceful demonstration later became the focus of a federal lawsuit against New Port Richey police and the city council by Black Lives Matter and New Port Richey resident Marlowe Jones, who was arrested during the demonstration on a charge of battery against a law enforcement officer and acquitted on all charges.

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• Tampa Man Arrested After Taking Selfie During Capitol Siege: FBI
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• Messianic Rabbi From Palm Harbor Took Part In Capitol Seige: FBI
• Largo Man Admits To Assaulting Police During Capitol Siege
• Ex-Green Beret, Congressional Candidate Jailed In Capitol Siege

Southard-Rumsey's comments grew progressively more antagonist and contemptuous toward the U.S. government when Biden defeated Trump in November 2020.

According to the FBI, on Jan. 5, 2021, she and three other people from Tampa Bay drove a rental car from Florida to Washington, D.C., to take part in the planned protest at the U.S. Capitol to coincide with the counting of the electoral votes for president on Jan. 6.

The FBI said Southard-Rumsey was one of two main agitators who confronted U.S. Capitol police officers, igniting the siege on the Capitol.

Upon her arrest on June 2, 2021, she appeared in federal court in Tampa before U.S. Judge Anthony Porcelli on multiple charges of assault on a federal officer, engaging in an act of physical violence on the grounds or in any of the U.S. Capitol buildings, and other crimes.

Patch has reached out to Southard-Rumsey for comment several times since her arrest but she's never responded.

The case was investigated by the FBI's Tampa and Washington field offices, with help from the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police, and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa.

The Department of Justice is continuing to identify and charge people who took part in the siege on the Capitol following Joe Biden's election as president over Donald Trump.

So far, 1,003 people have been charged in the Capitol insurrection, with the largest number of rioters (93 residents) hailing from Florida, according to the FBI, which opened a field office in Tampa following the siege to specifically to identify and arrest Floridians who took part. Click here for a list of Floridians who have been arrested.

Anyone with tips about the Capitol breach can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.