A California man who cracked the face shield of one police officer, unloaded pepper spray on others and bludgeoned countless officers with poles, boards and even his feet was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday, the longest sentence handed down to any participant in the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors called David Dempsey “political violence personified,” and U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth agreed, saying that even on a day that “will be seared into our nation’s memory as a bloodbath,” Dempsey’s conduct was “exceptionally egregious.”
Of the more than 1,400 people charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack — a violent assault by supporters of former President Donald Trump seeking to prevent the transfer of power to President Joe Biden — only former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has been sentenced to a lengthier prison term: 22 years. But Tarrio was not present at the Capitol that day. Rather, a jury convicted him of orchestrating a plan for his Proud Boys allies to breach the Capitol and help the larger mob overwhelm police.
Dempsey’s sentence outstrips even the one handed down to Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year for similarly orchestrating a plan to violently impede the transfer of power.
Not only did Dempsey, who pleaded guilty to assault, persist in his violence for hours on Jan. 6, but he also came to the Capitol with a massive rap sheet that included other instances of political violence. Throughout the riot, Dempsey placed himself at the center of the most violent episodes, particularly in the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace tunnel, the site of the most extreme violence that day. There he climbed atop other rioters to research the police line and wielded wooden poles and other objects to attempt to injure them.
Several of the officers who defended the Capitol that day sat in the front of the courtroom observing the proceedings, watching silently as prosecutors recounted Dempsey’s intense assaults. One officer who bore the brunt of Dempsey’s attack, Sgt. Jason Mastony, described the moment that Dempsey bashed his head with a crutch, cracking his face shield and causing a gash.
“I collapsed and caught myself against the wall as my ears rang,” Mastony said in a written statement to the court.
Prosecutors pressed Lamberth to impose a steep sentence in part because Jan. 6 was not an aberration for Dempsey. He has repeatedly gotten violent during protests and has used chemical sprays to disable counterprotesters. Prosecutors played a video of Dempsey using a skateboard to assault a protester at previous rallies, with some moments of violence prompting gasps in Lamberth’s courtroom.
When it was his turn to address the judge, Dempsey described a life of destitution and abuse as the source of his violence.
“Life has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows,” Dempsey said, reading from a letter.
He described negative interactions with police as fueling some of his anger, and he apologized to the officers he attacked, saying he had been consumed by emotion. He insisted he didn’t come to Washington that day “hellbent on violence,” or to overturn an election.
Dempsey’s sentence landed with a particular impact on his family, who were present in the courtroom, including his 7-year-old daughter. After the sentencing, the young girl pranced in the hallway as her mother cried. A family member said the girl had just celebrated her birthday Thursday and isn’t “able to understand what’s going on.”
Only a handful of other Jan. 6 rioters without ties to extremist groups have faced sentences of 10 or more years. They include Peter Schwartz, who had a similarly long rap sheet and received a 14-year sentence; Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, who drove a taser into the neck of D.C. police officer Michael Fanone; and Thomas Webster, a retired NYPD officer who attempted to gouge the eyes of a D.C. police officer during a particularly vicious brawl.
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