Home News Paul Pelosi attack: Judge grants motion to reopen David DePape’s sentencing

Paul Pelosi attack: Judge grants motion to reopen David DePape’s sentencing

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Paul Pelosi attack: Judge grants motion to reopen David DePape’s sentencing
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A federal judge has granted a motion to reopen the sentencing in the case against David DePape, the man convicted of the 2022 attack on House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, because he did not get a chance to speak during his sentencing hearing Friday.

The judge will reopen the sentencing portion of the case on May 28 at 9:30 a.m.

In a motion filed Saturday, the court admitted to the mistake, stating that federal rules require the “court, prior to imposing a sentence, to ‘address the defendant personally in order to permit the defendant to speak or present any information to mitigate the sentence.’ At the May 17, 2024 sentencing proceeding, no party brought to the Court’s attention that it had not done so. Nonetheless, it was the Court’s responsibility to personally ask Mr. DePape if he wanted to speak. As the Court did not do so, it committed clear error.”

On Friday, the judge sentenced DePape, a former East Bay resident, to 30 years for assault and 20 years for attempted kidnapping, which would run concurrently, for the attack at the Pelosis’ San Francisco home. That same day, federal prosecutors filed a motion to reopen the sentencing for “the limited purpose of addressing the defendant to permit him to allocute, if he so chooses, prior to sentencing.”

DePape was not required to speak during the hearing, the motion states, but the record shows he didn’t get the opportunity to do so. DePape’s attorneys told prosecutors they opposed the motion. They separately filed a notice of appeal regarding the “judgment and sentence entered in this matter.”

In November, DePape was convicted in a federal court in San Francisco on one count of assault on the immediate family member of a federal official and a second count of attempted kidnapping of a federal official.

At the time, DePape’s attorneys conceded that their client attacked the then-83-year-old Paul Pelosi, but argued that his motivation for the assault did not match the charges against him.

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