Suspected Pelosi attacker pleads not guilty to all state charges at San Francisco arraignment
By Veronica Miracle, Julia Jones and Zachary Cohen, CNN
David DePape, the man accused of violently attacking Paul Pelosi last week, entered a not guilty plea Tuesday to all state charges during his initial appearance in court.
He also waived his right to a hearing within 10 days at his arraignment at a San Francisco court room. Judge Diane Northway set a hearing for Friday in San Francisco Superior Court to set a date for the preliminary hearing and bail setting.
No cameras were allowed in court for Tuesday’s arraignment.
DePape, 42, has been charged with a litany of crimes, including assault, attempted murder and attempted kidnapping, following last week’s break-in at the couple’s San Francisco home, the US attorney’s office and San Francisco district attorney announced on Monday. He was charged with one count of “attempted kidnapping of a US official,” according to the US attorney’s office for the Northern District of California. That charge relates to Nancy Pelosi, who DePape told police he planned to “hold hostage,” according to an FBI affidavit also unsealed on Monday.
The attempted kidnapping charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. He has not yet entered a plea in federal court.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that authorities believe DePape had other “targets” besides the House speaker.
Asked by CNN’s Erin Burnett about DePape’s alleged plans to target other politicians, Jenkins said that “there were other public officials that were apparently targets of his, and obviously he showed up at the speaker’s house first.”
The case, Jenkins said, is still “very fresh” and she declined to give specific details related to who had been a potential target.
DePape, the DA said, has been “cooperative” with police and “submitted to a lengthy interview” before obtaining representation through counsel.
DePape’s attorney, Adam Lipson, said outside the courtroom earlier Tuesday that “there’s been a lot of speculation, a lot of rumor, simply based on the nature of this case.”
“So I’m not going to add to all the speculation by talking about the facts of this case right now,” he said, adding: “What I will say is that there’s been a lot of speculation regarding Mr. DePape’s vulnerability to misinformation and that’s certainly something we are going to look into, that we are going to delve into, as his defense team, but again it would be premature to talk about that at this time.”
Earlier, DePape was released from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and moved to the county jail, according to Kelvin Wu, a spokesman for the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office.
CNN has reported that DePape allegedly shouted “Where’s Nancy?” after breaking into their home.
DePape also was charged with one count of assault of an immediate family member of a US official with the intent to retaliate against the official. That charge relates to a crime allegedly committed against Paul Pelosi and carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Members of the Pelosi family are expected to be able to hear audio from the 911 call Paul Pelosi placed to police and see body camera footage of officers who responded to the home the night of the attack, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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CNN’s Sonnet Swire contributed to this report.
