David DePape, accused of assaulting Paul Pelosi, appeared in court Wednesday as prosecutors played body camera footage and a 911 call made by the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
DePape was arrested on October 28 for attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer at his and the House Speaker’s home in San Francisco, California. Nancy Pelosi was in Washington at the time.
At a preliminary hearing Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, Judge Stephen Murphy will consider whether there is enough evidence to proceed with the trial.
Local prosecutors charged DePape with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse. DePape has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges, including attempted kidnapping of Nancy Pelosi.
PELOSI ATTACK SUSPECT DAVID DEPAPE IS AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AFTER A FELONY.
David DePape, in Berkeley, Calif., Friday, Dec. 13, 2013.
(Michael Short/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
In a clip of the 911 call played in court, Paul Pelosi tells a dispatcher, “I have a gentleman here waiting for my wife, Nancy Pelosi, to come back.” He also says that he does not know this person.
“I don’t know who he is. He’s telling me not to do anything. He’s telling me to hang up and do what he says,” said Paul Pelosi. Another voice said, “My name is David.”
David DePape recorded Gypsy Taub’s nude wedding in front of City Hall on December 19, 2013 in San Francisco. DePape is accused of breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s California home and severely beating her husband with a hammer. DePape is best known as a pro-nudity activist who has picketed naked in Berkeley, California, in protests against local laws requiring people to be clothed in public.
(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
“He wants me to get off the phone,” Pelosi added, according to local reporter Natalie Hanson.
Body-worn camera footage shown in court Wednesday showed DePape punching Paul Pelosi.
San Francisco police officer Kyle Cagney took the stand and described how it took him and his partner about four minutes to respond to Pelosi’s residence, which they knew from a previous incident, rang the doorbell.
The door opened quickly and he said he saw two men holding the same hammer.
A general view of what is believed to have been DePay’s one-time residence in Oakland, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. DePape allegedly assaulted Paul Pelosi during a home invasion this morning.
(Flight Risk for Fox News Digital)
About five feet from the threshold, two men struggled when officers asked what was going on. DePape said “nothing” until he took control of the hammer and hit Pelosi in the head.
Officers can also be heard yelling “drop the hammer,” to which DePape replied, “uh, no.”
Officers quickly tackled DePape, and Pelosi fell to the ground, where she lay face down, covered in blood and seemingly unconscious, Cagney said.
Cagney also removed what was believed to be the hammer used in the attack from an evidence bag.
The San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi is seen after police say David DePape assaulted Paul Pelosi early Friday, Oct. 28, 2022.
(KGO-TV)
Pelosi, who was then interviewed at the hospital while drowsy, told Sgt. DePape, “Where’s Nancy?” He said that he called
Ahead of Wednesday’s preliminary hearing, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins outlined what happened in a court filing. “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?” Jenkins said DePape told 82-year-old Paul Pelosi that night when he woke him from his bed.
Pelosi later told the dispatcher she didn’t know the man, but DePape replied, “I’m their friend.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and husband Paul Pelosi attend the 45th Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on December 4, 2022 in Washington, D.C.
(SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
DePape later told officers and medics at the scene, “I’m fed up with all the crazy lies coming out of Washington, D.C., I came to have a little chat with his wife,” according to the filing.
Jenkins also cited officers’ body-worn camera footage as part of the investigation.
Meanwhile, an FBI affidavit filed in the federal case cites a recorded interview with San Francisco police detectives. DePape is said to have told investigators that he saw Nancy Pelosi as the “leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic Party, and later explained that he had to get the House speaker into Congress by breaking her knees.
The federal indictment also alleges that after DePape was taken into custody, officers recovered tape, white rope, a second hammer, a pair of rubber and cloth gloves and ligatures from the crime scene, where officers found a glass bottle. he also observed that the door was broken. back porch.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has since issued a detainer for DePape. He is an illegal immigrant from Canada who first entered the US through Mexico in 2008.
Paul Pelosi made his first public appearance since the attack on December 4 when he and his wife attended the 45th Kennedy Center Convocation in Washington.