A Van Nuys man described by federal prosecutors as “one of the most violent rioters” during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison, one of the longest sentences ever handed down to a defendant in the attack.
David Nicholas Dempsey, 37, used flagpoles, metal crutches and broken furniture during the 2021 riots, injuring police and other insurrectionists, according to court documents. He pleaded guilty to assaulting a law enforcement officer with a dangerous weapon and storming the U.S. Capitol in January.
Protesters gather on the second day of pro-Trump events fueled by President Donald Trump's continued claims of election fraud in an attempt to overturn the results before they are finalized by Congress in a joint session of the 117th Congress on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.
(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)
Dempsey traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally and is seen in a video standing near a wooden structure resembling a hanging gallows as he says politicians like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Jerry Nadler should be hanged in a livestream on YouTube.
“That’s what they need,” Dempsey said in a YouTube livestream, according to prosecutors. “They don’t need a jail cell.”
Shortly after, Dempsey participated in some of the most violent attacks captured on video on January 6.
In a sentencing memo, federal prosecutors described Dempsey's actions during the Jan. 6 uprising as among the most violent.
“For over an hour, defendant David Dempsey brutally assaulted and injured police officers defending the Lower West Terrace Tunnel with a variety of weapons,” prosecutors argued in court filings. “Dempsey was one of the most violent rioters, during one of the most violent periods in history, at the site of the most violent confrontations at the Capitol.”
This image from a Justice Department video included in the sentencing memo, and annotated by the source, shows David Nicholas Dempsey throwing a stick at a police officer in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Dempsey, a California man with a history of political violence, was sentenced on Aug. 9, 2024, to 20 years in prison for repeatedly attacking police with flagpoles and other improvised weapons during the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
(Department of Justice / Associated Press)
As other rioters on Jan. 6 slowly made their way toward the Capitol, prosecutors said Dempsey climbed over people, “using them as human scaffolding, pushing himself forward.”
Dempsey used flagpoles, crutches, pepper spray and furniture as weapons in what officials described as a prolonged attack that affected both sides of the fray.
“Dempsey’s violence reached such extremes that at one point he attacked a fellow rioter who was attempting to disarm him,” prosecutors wrote.
When a rioter compromised a Metropolitan Police Department detective's gas mask, Dempsey used pepper spray to attack the officer.
Minutes later, Dempsey also struck another officer with a metal crutch, causing the officer to fall back in a daze, his gas mask crushed.
U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger applauded the ruling Friday.
“David Dempsey was one of the most violent participants and at times led parties in the attacks on multiple officers protecting the Capitol that day,” Manger said in a statement. “We thank the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their work in investigating and prosecuting this case.”
In calling for a harsh sentence, prosecutors argued that Dempsey had a history of political violence. In 2019, he was arrested on suspicion of using pepper spray during a political rally.
Dempsey is one of 1,488 people who have faced criminal charges related to the Jan. 6 attack. Last month, two Southern California women were charged for their role in the insurrection. In March, prosecutors charged a Northridge woman.
Their respective futures and prison sentences could be at stake during this year's presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump has said in previous interviews, including a recent appearance with a panel of the National Association of Black Journalists, that he would grant pardons to the Jan. 6 rioters.
“Yes, of course, if they are innocent I would pardon them,” Trump said during the panel. “They were convicted by a very harsh system.”
