Capitol Police Officer Karen Emory is scheduled to appear in federal court on Dec. 17 to enter a plea to a charge that she set a Nov. 2 fire in a women’s restroom in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. [IMGCAP(1)]

The 36-year-old resident of Waldorf, Md., officially was indicted by a grand jury last week on one misdemeanor count of “willfully injuring or committing any depredation against any property of the United States.” If convicted, Emory faces up to a year in jail.

As of Monday afternoon, Emory had not obtained an attorney, according to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Emory is accused of setting an early morning fire to toilet paper inside a Dirksen restroom. Several more small fires were set in Dirksen and the Hart Senate Office Building this fall, all of which were extinguished quickly.

Emory has not been charged in any of those blazes, which remain under investigation. No injuries were reported from the fires.

— Elizabeth Brotherton