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The lawsuit against David DePape, the antheral accused of attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer successful Pelosi’s San Francisco home, volition spell to trial, a San Francisco Superior Court justice ruled Wednesday.
DePape volition beryllium arraigned Dec. 28 connected charges including attempted murder, battle with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, mendacious imprisonment of an elder, first-degree burglary and threatening the household subordinate of a nationalist official. He pleaded not blameworthy to each charges. DePape could look a beingness condemnation if convicted.
The justice ruled astatine Wednesday’s preliminary proceeding that prosecutors had presented capable grounds to determination guardant with a proceedings — grounds that included assemblage camera footage, arsenic good arsenic grounds from an serviceman who archetypal responded to the 911 telephone and an researcher who said DePape had a “hit list” that included histrion Tom Hanks, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Biden’s lad Hunter Biden.
At the hearing, a San Francisco constabulary serviceman who was 1 of the archetypal 2 to get astatine the country of the Oct. 28 incident, reportedly testified helium saw DePape onslaught Pelosi with a hammer. DePape’s intended target was allegedly Pelosi’s wife, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The tribunal saw assemblage camera video from the officers that included audio of 1 serviceman telling DePape to “drop the hammer,” to which helium replied, “Uh, nope,” earlier allegedly swinging the hammer astatine Pelosi and being tackled by an officer. And San Francisco Police Sgt. Carla Hurley, who interviewed DePape the time of the attack, spoke of his alleged “hit list” targets too Nancy Pelosi.
The interrogation besides was played successful court, per quality reports. In it, DePape accused Democrats of tampering with erstwhile President Trump’s run and said helium had planned to kidnap Speaker Pelosi. He said helium did not regret his actions.
“I’m not trying to get distant with this,” helium said. “I cognize what I did.”
The 911 call, played successful the courtroom and transcribed by KRON4 News, suggested Pelosi did not cognize DePape earlier the attack, disputing conspiracy theories online that were amplified connected Twitter by Chief Executive Elon Musk.
The dispatcher asked, “Do you cognize who the idiosyncratic is?” Pelosi responded, “No, I don’t cognize who helium is.”
In the October incident, DePape allegedly broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco location and assaulted the 82-year-old antheral with the hammer, fracturing his skull and earnestly injuring his close limb and legs, according to authorities. Nancy Pelosi was successful Washington, D.C., astatine the time.
A abstracted national lawsuit against DePape is ongoing, successful which DePape pleaded not blameworthy to battle and kidnapping charges.
He told constabulary successful the interrogation aft the onslaught that Speaker Pelosi was the “leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic Party, according to the national indictment. DePape had hoped to clasp her hostage, interrogate her and interruption her kneecaps, authorities said.
It was announced past period that San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Stephen Murphy would beryllium taking implicit the transgression lawsuit against DePape, according to Randy Quezada, communications manager for the San Francisco territory attorney’s office.
Before the hearing, Nebosvod Gonzalez, 19, the lad of DePape and Oxane “Gypsy” Taub, spoke publically astir his begetter for the archetypal clip successful a connection to The Times astir DePape’s hard upbringing and his governmental views. Gonzalez told The Times that helium had not seen DePape for a fewer years.
Gonzalez said his begetter grew up successful an abusive household and that, erstwhile helium was a toddler, his grandma poured boiling h2o connected him.
“My begetter is simply a truly bittersweet person,” Gonzalez wrote successful the statement. “If you look into his eyes, determination is truthful overmuch sadness there.”
Of DePape’s governmental views, Gonzalez said his begetter wasn’t “Republican oregon Democrat” but that helium was progressive and “believed successful quality rights, equality and justice.”
“It’s truly bittersweet however overmuch symptom and suffering my begetter has been through,” Gonzalez said. “I truly anticipation helium doesn’t person to spell done immoderate much suffering due to the fact that it’s honestly each conscionable precise bittersweet and tragic.”
Taub, 53, DePape’s erstwhile spouse and parent of his 2 sons, besides wrote astir DePape successful her online blog past month. Gonzalez confirmed to The Times that the blog belonged to his mother.
Taub is incarcerated astatine the California Institution for Women successful Corona aft being convicted successful 2021 of stalking and attempted kid abduction of a 14-year-old boy, among different charges.
Taub said she met DePape successful Hawaii successful 2000, erstwhile helium was 20 years old, and described him arsenic “really saccharine and truly shy.”
Taub wrote astir DePape’s troubled childhood, saying helium had been abused by his grandparents and his mother.
“David suffers from heavy slump and terrible PTSD,” she wrote. “It’s hard for him to communicate, to explicit his emotions and to link with people. He was perpetually bullied astatine schoolhouse and astatine home. He felt unwanted and rejected.”
In her blog, Taub referenced a since-deleted NBC News communicative that fueled conspiratorial reasoning online, asking Nancy Pelosi to merchandise the grounds against her erstwhile spouse and claiming a “massive cover-up.”
She told the San Francisco Chronicle that DePape struggled with cause usage and started surviving connected the streets astatine immoderate point. The mates broke up successful 2015.
DePape’s brag spoke with The Times past month, saying DePape had been a gentle and quiescent carpenter but espoused right-wing views erstwhile authorities came up. He said DePape began “deteriorating” implicit the past twelvemonth and a half.
“It was right-wing, each the mode down the line,” said Frank Ciccarelli, 76, a carpenter who employed DePape successful the Bay Area. “He thought clime alteration was a hoax and Hillary Clinton is moving a pedophile ringing retired of a pizza parlor. It was truthful ridiculous that it was hard to instrumentality seriously.”
A Times reappraisal of DePape’s idiosyncratic blog revealed helium posted videos astir conspiracies involving COVID-19 vaccines and the warfare successful Ukraine being a ploy for Jewish radical to bargain land.
DePape besides posted astir QAnon, an unfounded mentation that erstwhile President Trump is astatine warfare with a cabal of Satan-worshiping Democratic elites who tally a kid enactment ringing and power the world. Other posts referenced Pizzagate, a bogus conspiracy mentation that posited that children were trapped successful a intersexual maltreatment ringing successful a Washington, D.C., pizzeria tally by Hillary Clinton and a main aide. The blog has since been taken down.
In her blog post, Taub challenged the claims that DePape was antisemitic, penning that she herself is simply a Jewish woman.
“If David truly hated Jews, wherefore would helium walk 15 years of his beingness with a Jewish pistillate and wherefore would helium person Jewish kids with her?” she wrote. “In each the years that I spent with David I ne'er erstwhile heard a azygous antisemitic remark from him. Neither person I ever heard immoderate racist comments from David. He was against immoderate signifier of racism.”
The Times’ reappraisal of DePape’s net history, however, arsenic good arsenic interviews with others who knew him contiguous a antithetic picture, peculiarly successful the bigoted views expressed successful his much caller blogs.
DePape was calved successful Canada, moved to California much than 20 years agone and was in the U.S. illegally, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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