According to the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, a judge on Thursday dismissed a number of state charges against Paul Pelosi’s attacker, who was found guilty in federal court last month.
The judge based this decision on the claim that the counts were subject to double jeopardy.
Last month, David DePape was found guilty of attacking a family member of a federal official and making an attempt to kidnap the official.
In addition to any possible punishment resulting from the state trial, he was sentenced to 30 years in federal jail. After serving his sentence, he will probably be deported back to Canada.
State prosecutors proceeded with their own prosecution against DePape, who in 2022 used a hammer to beat the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi inside their San Francisco home, after winning the case in federal court. Paul Pelosi was attacked when he was eighty-two years old.
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However, DePape’s public defenders argue that, in light of the federal conviction, the state trial amounts to double jeopardy. The public defender’s office stated that although the criminal counts in the two cases are not precisely the same, they are related to the same act.
On Thursday, the court threw out the state’s accusations of attempted murder, elder abuse, and dangerous weapon assault.
DePape is still being prosecuted for aggravated kidnapping, domestic burglary, threatening a public official’s family, and trying to influence a witness. The federal trial did not include those.
To every charge, he has entered a not guilty plea.
The public defender’s office merely reiterated the judge’s decision without adding anything more. The accusations were dropped, as first reported by KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle.
In his testimony at the federal trial, DePape acknowledged that he had threatened to kidnap, question, and “break her kneecaps” Nancy Pelosi if she did not confess to the lies he claimed she had told about “Russiagate,” the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Days before the 2022 midterm elections, Paul Pelosi was attacked, and the crime was caught on police body camera footage, shocking the political community. He sustained two head injuries, one of which was a fracture to his skull, which was fixed with lifelong plates and screws. His hand and right arm were also hurt.
