Updated 4:30 p.m. Thursday
The judge presiding over the state trial of David DePape, the man who violently attacked former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in 2022, dismissed multiple charges Thursday, dramatically upending the trial schedule and altering the course of a case that was expected to be a routine repeat of DePape’s federal prosecution.
Shortly after 11 a.m., Judge Harry Dorfman granted some of the defense’s double-jeopardy arguments and tossed out charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse on the grounds that DePape has already been convicted for those acts in federal court.
“This is all one event,” Dorfman said at a San Francisco hearing Thursday. “A sober look at the evidence is – same place, same time, same act.”
The trial is now on hold for at least a week while attorneys await a response from the California Court of Appeal on each party’s request to challenge the ruling.