A California prosecutor claims that “police officers violently assaulted and injured” at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in prison, one of the longest sentences handed down in connection with the attack.
David Nicholas Dempsey pleaded guilty in January to two counts of assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon.
Prosecutors said he climbed over protesters like “human scaffolding” to get to the front of the crowd, where he began a “prolonged attack” on authorities using his hands, flag poles, broken furniture, pepper spray and “anything anything else he could get. Get to work” – even attacking a rowdy colleague who tried to disarm him.
“Dempsey was one of the most violent protesters during one of the most violent periods in the
time, at the site of the most violent clashes at the Capitol, on January 6, 2021,” federal prosecutors wrote in his sentencing request to the judge.
The sentence imposed on Dempsey by Judge Royce Lamberth, appointed by Reagan, is surpassed only by that of Enrique Tarrio, former national president of the right-wing extremist Proud Boys, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for conspiring to prevent the peaceful transfer. from the power of former President Trump to now President Biden after the 2020 elections.
Dempsey’s sentence is longer than that of Stewart Rhodes, founder of the right-wing militia group Oath Keepers, who, like Tarrio, was convicted of seditious conspiracy. Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Lamberth on Friday called Dempsey’s conduct on Jan. 6 “exceptionally egregious.” Dempsey called his own conduct “reprehensible” and apologized to authorities.
Prosecutors sought an even longer prison sentence, asking the judge to impose a sentence of 262 months, nearly 22 years. They credited the high order to Dempsey’s violence on Jan. 6 and his “lengthy” prior criminal record.
In a statement, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger called Dempsey “one of the most violent participants” in the riot and credited him with leading attacks on several officers.
Dempsey was previously convicted after spraying a crowd of anti-Trump protesters with a can of bear repellent in 2019 while wearing a Make America Great Again hat. Prosecutors said in court documents that the incident “ominously foreshadowed” his later attack on a police officer at the Capitol.
In total, more than 1,400 protesters across the country were charged for their actions on January 6.
Updated at 4:40 pm EDT.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
