An Ashland doctor accused of punching a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol has been engaged in plea negotiations with federal prosecutors, according to legal filings.
References to the plea discussions were included in documents filed last month in federal court in Washington, D.C., in the case against Dr. Jacquelyn Starer, 69.
Starer is charged with with civil disorder; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a capitol building; acts of physical violence in the capitol grounds or buildings; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a public building, records show.
She has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bond.
“The parties have engaged in plea discussions in an attempt to resolve this case,” US Attorney Matthew M. Graves’s office wrote in a document filed Jan. 2. “A period of approximately 45 days will allow the parties to attempt to resolve outstanding issues.”
The status of the plea discussions wasn’t immediately known Wednesday. Starer’s lawyers and Graves’s office didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
Starer’s next hearing is scheduled for Feb. 23.
According to an FBI affidavit in the case, video footage shows Starer entering the Capitol with other rioters at 2:51 p.m. Police body camera footage later captured Starer as she allegedly struck a Metropolitan Police Department officer inside the building, the affidavit said.
The officer, identified in court papers as M.B., told investigators that a blonde woman wearing a red hat and jacket, later identified as Starer, “punched her in the left side of her head,” the affidavit said.
“Officer M.B. stated that the blonde woman came at her again, and Officer M.B. struck the woman in response,” the filing said. “During her interview, Officer M.B. recognized the blonde woman who hit her [just before 3 p.m.] ... in footage taken from her body-worn camera.”
Authorities also spoke with a tipster who said Starer bragged to a mutual acquaintance before Jan. 6 that she was headed to Washington, D.C., and “prepared” for the march by bringing “a mesh knife-proof shirt and bottles of pepper spray,” the affidavit said.
Starer, a specialist in addiction medicine and obstetrics and gynecology, was first licensed to practice in Massachusetts in 1983, according to her state Board of Registration in Medicine profile, which says she entered into a voluntary agreement not to practice in the state early last year.
She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in 1979 and has served as president of the Massachusetts Society of Addiction Medicine.
Close to 800 defendants have received sentences for their criminal activity on Jan. 6, according to prosecutors.
“More than 1,313 defendants have been charged in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia,” said Graves’s office in a statement Tuesday.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report. This breaking news story will be updated when more information is released.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.