A senior judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sentenced a California man to 20 years in prison for his actions during the Jan. 6 protests of 2021, the second longest sentence given as a result of the riots to date.
David Dempsey, 37, pleaded guilty to two charges of assaulting police officers. He confessed to engaging in violent acts in the Capitol tunnel during which he attacked police officers with poles and pepper spray, causing "significant injury" to two officers.
Dempsey had traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the "Stop the Steal" rally and was seen standing near a wooden structure designed to be hanging gallows while saying politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., should be hanged via 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."
Prosecutors had asked for a 21 year sentence, labeling Dempsey "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," the Washington Examiner reported.
"For over one hour, defendant David Dempsey viciously assaulted and injured police officers defending the lower west terrace tunnel with a variety of implements he refashioned as weapons," prosecutors argued in court filings. "Dempsey’s violence reached such extremes that, at one point, he attacked a fellow rioter who was trying to disarm him," prosecutors wrote.
Dempsey is one of the 1,488 people who have faced criminal charges related to the Jan. 6 protests. Approximately 560 prison sentences have been handed down related to the Capitol riot cases. The longest sentence was given to Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys who was given 22 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges despite not being in Washington during the riots.
Former President Donald Trump has indicated he would pardon any Jan. 6 protester who was wrongly convicted during a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists saying, "Oh, absolutely I would. If they’re innocent, I would pardon them. They were convicted by a very tough system."