Documents reveal Jan. 6 riot allegations against Hadley woman

ALBANY – Just over two weeks after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, FBI agents learned of a TikTok video later connected to Hadley resident Katelyn Bartow.

The video appeared to depict Bartow picking up trash cans and trash inside the Capitol as the riot went on. “What the media doesn’t want to show … And yes, this was moments after the storming of the Capitol,” according to a new court filing.

“Still stormed the Capitol…,” one person commented. “Sure did,” Bartow responded.

The account is included in a new court filing against Bartow, as she was arrested this week on four misdemeanor counts related to the riot, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.

She was arraigned Thursday and released to return to court later.

Bartow went into the Capitol with her brother, identified in court filings as Travis Bartow, a resident of Tennessee. Bartow was arrested this week on the same charges as his sister, records show.

While authorities pressed charges against the two nearly 22 months after the riot, the court filing shows agents were aware of the two by Jan. 25, 2021.

That’s when a unnamed witness spotted the TikTok video, then a second one from the same account and an associated Facebook account that all contained indications that she was at the Capitol and inside it Jan. 6, according to the filing.

By Feb. 1, 2021, FBI agents were at Katelyn Bartow’s home in the town of Hadley and she admitted that the accounts belonged to her and that she was the person who recorded the footage, according to the filing.

She then allegedly gave her account of her time inside the building that appeared to be largely supported by surveillance footage from inside the Capitol, according to the filing.

She also allegedly gave her reasoning for attending the original rally as “to voice her opinion on how the votes (regarding the 2020 Presidential election) were not being conveyed accurately to the public,” the filing reads.

Surveillance footage captured the siblings entering the building at 2:24 p.m. and leaving at 2:54 p.m.

In between, Katelyn Bartow told agents she first saw someone acting aggressive toward a law enforcement officer and garbage scattered. She then directed others to help pick up trash, according to her account.

Video showed the siblings picking up garbage that had been strewn during the crowd’s initial entrance and then engaging others who then start picking up trash themselves.

She also stated she later saw a group acting aggressively toward law enforcement and yelled at the group for confronting the officers.

She finally overheard officers tell a group that someone had been shot and that they should leave. She then left.

Others locally have also been charged in the riot, though closer in time to the acts. A Glens Falls man ultimately got 90 days in jail after pleading guilty in his Jan. 6 case, while a Schenectady man remains in custody pending a February 2023 trial on his own Jan. 6 charges.

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