Jan. 6 rioter who attacked police with a pole gets 20 years in prison

A California man prosecutors say “viciously assaulted and injured police officers” at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was on Friday sentenced to 20 years in prison, one of the longest terms 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 rioters like “human scaffolding” to reach the front of the crowd, where he began a “prolonged attack” on law enforcement using his hands, flag poles, broken furniture, pepper spray and “anything else he could get his hands on” — even attacking a fellow rioter who attempted to disarm him.

“Dempsey was one of the most violent rioters, during one of the most violent stretches of
time, at the scene of the most violent confrontations at the Capitol on January 6, 2021,” federal prosecutors wrote in their sentencing request to the judge.

The sentence imposed on Dempsey by Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, is only topped by that of Enrique Tarrio, former national chair of the right-wing extremist Proud Boys, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for plotting to halt the peaceful transfer of power from former President Trump to now-President Biden following the 2020 election.

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 of 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 law enforcement.

Prosecutors sought an even longer term in prison, asking the judge to impose a sentence of 262 months, nearly 22 years. They credited the tall request 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” of the riot and credited him with leading assaults on numerous officers.

Dempsey was previously convicted after spraying a crowd of anti-Trump protesters with a can of bear repellant in 2019 while wearing a Make America Great Again cap. Prosecutors said in court filings that the incident “ominously foreshadowed” his later assault on a police officer at the Capitol.

In all, more than 1,400 rioters across the country have been charged for their actions on Jan. 6.

Updated at 4:40 p.m. EDT.