Man Who Bear-Sprayed Santa Monica Protestors Gets 20 Years For Jan. 6 Violence

SANTA MONICA, CA — A man with a history of political violence in Los Angeles County — including a conviction for using bear spray on anti-Trump protestors on the Santa Monica Pier — was sentenced Friday to 20 years behind bars for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot.

Prosecutors said David Nicholas Dempsey, of Van Nuys, on Jan. 6, 2021 stomped on police officers' heads, swung poles at officers defending a tunnel, struck an officer in the head with a metal crutch and attacked police with pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture. To get at the officers he climbed atop other rioters like human scaffolding, according to court filings.

Dempsey pleaded guilty in January to two counts of assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon.

“David Dempsey is political violence personified,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Brasher said in court.

His criminal record in California includes convictions for burglary, theft and assault. The assault conviction stemmed from an October 2019, gathering near the Santa Monica Pier, where Dempsey attacked people peacefully demonstrating against then-President Trump, prosecutors said.

“The peaceful protest turned violent as Dempsey took a canister of bear spray from his pants and dispersed it at close range against several protesters,” they wrote, noting that Dempsey was sentenced to 200 days of jail time.

At the time, police said Dempsey was barred from possessing tear gas weapons following burglary convictions in 2006 and 2009 and a larceny and conspiracy conviction in 2012.

Dempsey engaged in at least three other acts of “vicious political violence” that didn’t lead to criminal charges “for various reasons,” according to prosecutors. They said Dempsey struck a counter-protester over the head with a skateboard at a June 2019 rally in Los Angeles, used the same skateboard to assault someone at an August 2020 protest in Tujunga, California, and attacked a protester with pepper spray and a metal bat during a August 2020 protest in Beverly Hills, California.

Dempsey's 20-year sentence for his involvement in the Jan. 6 riot is the second-longest one handed down for the Capitol siege: Only former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has received a longer sentence.

According to court documents, Dempsey was captured in numerous videos taken on the Capitol's lower west terrace on Jan. 6. He wore various outfits, but predominantly a black shirt, dark helmet, goggles and an American flag cloth covering most of his face, federal prosecutors said.

In several still photos, Dempsey can be seen using various objects, including a crutch and a metal pole, as bludgeoning weapons or projectiles against the line of law enforcement officers protecting the tunnel in front of the west terrace entrance. Additional video footage shows Dempsey using what appears to be pepper spray against police.

Dempsey called his conduct “reprehensible” and apologized to the police officers whom he assaulted.

“You were performing your duties, and I responded with hostility and violence,” he said before learning his sentence.

Justice Department prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 21 years and 10 months for Dempsey, a former construction worker and fast-food restaurant employee. Dempsey’s violence was so extreme that he attacked a fellow rioter who was trying to disarm him, prosecutors wrote.

Defense attorney Amy Collins, who sought a sentence of 6 years and six months, described the government's sentencing recommendation as “ridiculous.”

“It makes him a statistic,” she said. “It doesn't consider the person he is, how much he has grown.”

Dempsey has been jailed since his arrest in August 2021.

In the 43 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,488 people have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including nearly 550 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.

The sentence comes the same week that another Los Angeles resident appeared in court on serious charges stemming from the Capitol riot.

Kennedy Lindsey, of Los Angeles County, is facing charges for hauling a cache of weapons including a sword, a steel tactical whip, a baton, a butterfly knife, a taser and pepper spray to take part in the siege of the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump supporters, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed Wednesday.

SEE ALSO: LA Woman Brought Sword, Steel Whip And Taser To Capitol Siege: FBI

Patch Staffer Paige Austin, City News Service and The Associated Press contributed to this report.