WASHINGTON (AP) — A California man with a history of political violence was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday for repeatedly attacking police with flagpoles and other improvised weapons during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
David Nicholas Dempsey’s prison sentence is one of the longest among hundreds of cases related to the Capitol riots. Prosecutors described him as one of the most violent members of the mob of Donald Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Dempsey, a Van Nuys native, kicked officers in the head, swung at officers defending a tunnel with poles, struck an officer in the head with a metal crutch and attacked officers with pepper spray and broken furniture, prosecutors said.
He climbed on other rioters and used them as “human scaffolding” to get to officers guarding a tunnel entrance, injuring at least two police officers in the process, prosecutors said.
“Your conduct on January 6 was extraordinarily egregious,” U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth told Dempsey. “You did not let yourself get carried away in that moment.”
Dempsey pleaded guilty in January to two counts of assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon.
Only former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio received a longer prison sentence for the January 6 attack. Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for organizing a plot to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.
Dempsey described his behavior as “reprehensible” and apologized to the police officers he attacked.
“You performed your duties and I responded with hostility and violence,” he said before receiving his sentence.
Justice Department prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 21 years and 10 months for Dempsey, a former construction worker and fast-food restaurant employee. Dempsey’s violence was so extreme that he attacked another rioter who tried to disarm him. Prosecutors wrote.
“David Dempsey is political violence personified,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Brasher told the judge.
Defense attorney Amy Collins, who called for a prison sentence of six years and six months, called the government’s sentence recommendation “ridiculous.”
“It turns him into a statistic,” she said. “It doesn’t take into account who he is and how much he has grown.”
Dempsey wore a tactical vest, helmet and an American flag gaiter covering his face as he charged police at a tunnel leading to the Lower West Terrace doors. He fired pepper spray at Metropolitan Police Department Detective Phuson Nguyen as another rioter ripped at the officer’s gas mask, prosecutors wrote.
“The searing spray burned Detective Nguyen’s lungs, throat, eyes and face, leaving him gasping for air as he feared losing consciousness and being overwhelmed by the crowd,” they wrote.
Dempsey then struck MPD Sergeant Jason Mastony on the head with a metal crutch, breaking the protective shield of his gas mask and causing a cut on his head.
“I collapsed, clinging to the wall as my ears rang. I was able to get back up and hold the line for a few more minutes until another attack by the rioters pushed the police line back from the threshold of the tunnel,” Mastony said in a statement submitted to the court.
Dempsey has been in prison since his arrest in August 2021.
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His criminal record in California includes convictions for burglary, theft and assault. The assault conviction stemmed from an October 2019 gathering near the Santa Monica Pier, where Dempsey attacked people peacefully protesting against then-President Trump, prosecutors said.
“The peaceful protest turned violent when Dempsey pulled a can of bear spray from his pants and fired it at point-blank range at several protesters,” they wrote, noting that Dempsey was sentenced to 200 days in jail.
Dempsey engaged in at least three other acts of “vicious political violence,” according to prosecutors, that did not result in charges “for various reasons.” They said Dempsey hit a counterprotester in the head with a skateboard at a June 2019 rally in Los Angeles, used the same skateboard to attack someone at a protest in Tujunga, California, in August 2020, and attacked a protester with pepper spray and a metal bat at an August 2020 protest in Beverly Hills, California.
More than 1,400 people were charged with federal crimes related to Jan. 6. Over 900 of them were convicted and punished, with about two-thirds receiving prison sentences ranging from a few days to the 22 years Tarrio received.
