WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors will try to persuade a federal judge on Friday to sentence a Donald Trump supporter who stood in front of the gallows and spoke of wanting to hang Democratic politicians before attacking multiple police officers. Attack on the US Capitol on January 6 to more than 21 years in federal prison.
David Dempsey, prosecutors sayOn January 6, 2021, law enforcement officers were “savagely” attacked in the lower west tunnel of the Capitol, where the worst violence took place. According to prosecutors, Dempsey climbed over fellow rioters “like a human scaffold” and “used his weapons” — arms, legs, flagpoles, crutches, pepper spray, broken pieces of furniture and anything else he could get his hands on — as weapons against police officers. The government is seeking 262 months in federal prison, which would be one of the longest sentences given to a January 6 rioter.
“Dempsey was one of the most violent rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, where the most violent confrontations took place at the Capitol,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing letter.
Dempsey attacked multiple officers, but pleaded guilty in connection with the attacks on Washington Police Detective Phuson Nguyen and Washington Police Sgt. Prosecutors wrote that Jason Mastoni, who was hit so hard with a metal baton, fell in confusion and suffered a head injury.
“Although Dempsey pleaded guilty only to the attacks on Detective Nguyen and Sergeant Mastoni, his violent assault on the other officers defending the Capitol was relentless: brandishing pole-like weapons more than 20 times, spraying chemicals at least three times, throwing objects at the officers at least ten times, stomped on the heads of police officers 5 times, attempted to steal a riot shield and baton, and continuously threatened and insulted the police while rallying other rioters to join him in the attack,” prosecutors wrote.
Before attacking the officers, Dempsey stood in front of a gallows erected near the Capitol with the words “this is art” inside. Dempsey, known by online scouts as #FlagGaiterCopHater for wearing an American flag and attacking officers, said in a video cited by prosecutors that he thinks the gallows should be used to hang politicians he calls “worthless cretins.”
“Put all these f—ing worthless bastards up above their heads,” he said in the video, pointing to the gallows, “those tree lines, poles, roofs, statues, I don’t care where they are. Let them go and put them up high and let everybody know that you What happens when there’s a piece of treachery—who doesn’t have the worst target in the f—country.”
Dempsey was arrested In connection with and prior to the August 2021 Capitol attack Paid in 2019 While donning “Make America Great Again” hats with bear spray on demonstrators in California; he did not make any allegations in this case. He pleaded guilty to charges related to the January 4 attack on the Capitol.
Dempsey, a former construction worker and fast-food worker with “a significant arrest and conviction history,” was identified with the help of online detectives who assisted the FBI in hundreds of cases against the January 6 rioters, prosecutors said. Federal prosecutors say that in addition to attacking anti-Trump protesters with bear spray in 2019, which resulted in a two-year suspended sentence, he previously attacked a counter-protester with a skateboard in a separate incident in 2019 and attacked another person with the same skateboard. . In 2020, he hit a man with a metal bat at a political protest and during another 2020 protest.
More than 1,400 people have been arrested and prosecutors have secured more than 1,000 convictions in connection with the January 6 attack. Hundreds of defendants received probation, but more than 560 defendants were sentenced to terms ranging from a few days to 22 years in federal prison.