Brothers from posh Chicago suburb escape without prison time for role in MAGA riot

Two brothers from a posh Chicago suburb -- including one who had promised a judge he’d obey their mom at the family mansion -- were able to avoid prison time for their participation in the January 6 Capitol riot.

Christian Kulas, 27, and Mark Kulas, 24 were sentenced today to six months of probation, including two months of home detention -- presumably within a $4.5 million mansion on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. They pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense of parading in the Capitol that carried a six-month maximum sentence.

U.S. District Senior Judge Thomas Hogan noted in sentencing the men that neither had joined in the violence that day, the Chicago Sun Times reported. “You did not destroy anything,” Hogan told Mark Kulas Jr. “You did not attack anybody.”

The Sun Times added, “However, prosecutors said the men entered the Capitol through doors that had been forced open 13 minutes earlier, and then they spent 25 minutes inside the building. They said Christian Kulas watched and laughed as rioters stormed the building and later raised his arms to cheer when rioters broke open a door inside.”

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Prosecutors also reported that the Kulas brothers stayed at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., the night before the breach. Christian Kulas took video of the “Stop the Steal” rally near the National Mall on Jan. 6, 2021, and later broadcast it on his Instagram account, the report said.

The brothers apparently were less jovial at the sentencing hearing. The newspaper reported that both apologized to the judge in advance of the sentencing.

“I make no excuses for my behavior and I take full responsibility for what I did on that day,” Christian Kulas said. “My intention is to move on from this with grace and dignity.”

As reported at Raw Story, Christian Kulas, who had sported a dark coat with a Burberry print for the riot, had promised good behavior when arraigned.

"Kulas' mother agreed to be responsible for her son returning for upcoming court appearances.

"Yes, I understand I must listen to everything my mother says your honor," Christian Kulas told the judge during a hearing conducted by phone Tuesday.

"Attorneys indicated Kulas would be staying at his parents' home in Kenilworth. Public records indicate it is $4.5 million mansion that sits on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. His father agreed to remove two guns from the premises.

Apparently, the brothers’ attorneys didn’t hesitate to make the family out as a victim, based upon the Sun Times reporting.

“The defense attorneys told the judge the Kulas family has “received vicious hate mail and threats, have witnessed their images repeatedly plastered across TV, print, and international media outlets, and have lost their privacy to drones flying over their home and reporters with camera crews knocking on their door.”

They wrote that the family cleaning business has suffered and that the brothers’ parents “do not deserve the barrage of disgusting and hateful threats, postings, letters, and email messages they have received in connection with this case.”

You can read the criminal complaint here.