Southern California man who attacked Capitol police with poles will get 20 years, one among longest Jan. 6 sentences

WASHINGTON — A California man with a historical past of political violence was sentenced on Friday to twenty years in jail for repeatedly attacking police with flagpoles and different makeshift weapons throughout the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.

David Nicholas Dempsey’s sentence is among the many longest amongst tons of of Capitol riot prosecutions. Prosecutors described him as one of the vital violent members of the mob of Donald Trump supporters that attacked the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory.

Dempsey, who’s from Van Nuys, stomped on cops’ heads. He swung poles at officers defending a tunnel, struck an officer within the head with a metallic crutch and attacked police with pepper spray and damaged items of furnishings, prosecutors mentioned.

LIST: Southern California residents accused or convicted within the Capitol riot

He climbed atop different rioters, utilizing them like “human scaffolding” to succeed in officers guarding a tunnel entrance. He injured no less than two cops, prosecutors mentioned.

“Your conduct on January sixth was exceptionally egregious,” U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth informed Dempsey. “You didn’t get carried away within the second.”

Dempsey pleaded responsible in January to 2 counts of assaulting cops with a harmful weapon.

Only former Proud Boys chief Enrique Tarrio has acquired an extended sentence within the Jan. 6 assault. Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years for orchestrating a plot to cease the peaceable switch of energy from Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

Dempsey known as his conduct “reprehensible” and apologized to the cops whom he assaulted.

“You have been performing your duties, and I responded with hostility and violence,” he mentioned earlier than studying his sentence.

Justice Department prosecutors really useful a jail sentence of 21 years and 10 months for Dempsey, a former development employee and fast-food restaurant worker. Dempsey’s violence was so excessive that he attacked a fellow rioter who was attempting to disarm him, prosecutors wrote.

“David Dempsey is political violence personified,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Brasher informed the judge.

Defense lawyer Amy Collins, who sought a sentence of 6 years and 6 months, described the federal government’s sentencing advice as “ridiculous.”

“It makes him a statistic,” she mentioned. “It doesn’t contemplate the particular person he’s, how a lot he has grown.”

Dempsey was carrying a tactical vest, a helmet and an American flag gaiter masking his face when he attacked police at a tunnel resulting in the Lower West Terrace doorways. He shot pepper spray at Metropolitan Police Department Detective Phuson Nguyen simply as one other rioter yanked on the officer’s fuel masks.

“The searing spray burned Detective Nguyen’s lungs, throat, eyes, and face and left him gasping for breath, fearing he would possibly lose consciousness and be overwhelmed by the mob,” prosecutors wrote.

Dempsey then struck MPD Sgt. Jason Mastony within the head with a metallic crutch, cracking the protect on his fuel masks and slicing his head.

“I collapsed and caught myself towards the wall as my ears rang. I used to be in a position to stand once more and maintain the road for just a few extra minutes till one other assault by rioters pushed the police line again away from the edge of the tunnel,” Mastony mentioned in a press release submitted to the courtroom.

Dempsey has been jailed since his arrest in August 2021.