Social Question

filmfann's avatar

DePape pleads Not Guilty. What?

Asked by filmfann (52515points) November 3rd, 2022

This is the Right Wing Canadian idiot who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s house, and attacked her husband with a hammer, while the police were in the doorway watching.
Let that sink in. The Police were watching. And he is pleading not guilty.
What is the strategy or advantage of his plea?

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55 Answers

ragingloli's avatar

He already voluntarily admitted to interrogators that his target was Nancy Pelosi, and that he intended to torture her.
Who knows why he pleaded “not guilty”.
Maybe because he thinks that what he tried to do is right, and by pleading guilty, he would admit to being wrong.

elbanditoroso's avatar

The justice system will take two years to put him on trial. Ultimately he’ll go to prison for a while.

Trump, if he is elected, will give him a pardon.

Jeruba's avatar

Police were watching? Watching the attack? I didn’t see that in the r4eports I read.

By pleading not quilty, he is ensuring that he will have a trial. That means a lot of publicity. Maybe it’s the attention that he’s after.

chyna's avatar

Yes, according to reports, the police were watching.
Maybe by pleading not guilty he plans on a diminished capacity defense and hopes to be put in a mental hospital instead of prison.

smudges's avatar

^^ Or maybe he plans on suing for false arrest since the police were watching and apparently did nothing. He might think, “Hey if they watched it and did nothing, nothing happened!”

janbb's avatar

I think the police showed up and Pelosi and the perp were struggling over the hammer. Then the perp took the hammer and hit Pelosi with it.

kritiper's avatar

Standard operating procedure. In court. Anyone can plead this.

Entropy's avatar

Not really following this all that closely, but IIRC, he admitted things under police interrogation. This is not the same as a plea. In a case like this it seems unlikely that the prosecutor would want to cut a deal. So why not plead not guilty and try to fight it as best you can?

jca2's avatar

It is not uncommon for big cases to plead not guilty. It enables their attorney(s) to come up with some type of plea deal. Plea deal will depend on the defendant’s previous criminal history, mental health history, etc. If he doesn’t have any or many prior convictions, he may get some type of deal, like a reduced sentence or not guilty to certain things in exchange for guilty pleas for other things. Pleading “not guilty” just gives his attorneys time to come up with some options. The plea can always be changed to “guilty” as late as up to the day of the trial. The jury can be chosen, and the attorneys will be in the hallway making some deal with the prosecutor.

janbb's avatar

^^ Right. I don’t see much of a plea deal happening here though.

jca2's avatar

@janbb Who knows. Only time will tell.

gondwanalon's avatar

Pleading not guilty is just part of the game. This way he can try to get a lighter penalty through a plea agreement.

Zaku's avatar

Pleading not guilty when guilty is also a way to not get as much leniency in sentencing.

This person set out to terrorize, torture and or kill people as part of a set of political delusions, though, so trying to deduce his legal “strategy” may be a waste of time.

SnipSnip's avatar

The insanity defense will be invoked. His attorney said that at a PC. That was a couple days ago, so may have changed now.

seawulf575's avatar

There’s a lot about this story that makes no sense. I have no doubt DePape will go to jail for whatever they want him to go to jail for, but the story right now…with the facts I can discover…don’t make much sense. And most of the “facts” being reported appear to be only one side of things…a story related by Paul Pelosi.

I saw a story today (and I wish I had noted the website link) that gave a pretty detailed account of what happened. It looked like it was what Paul originally told the press. In it were really weird things like DePape supposedly smashed a window and Paul didn’t hear it. No alarms were set off (as they previously had been according to neighbors). The first Pelosi saw of the intruder he says is when DePape was standing over him. The story rambled on and on with what sounded like the two being invader/victim and friend/friend. At one point the story says the cops knocked at the door and Pelosi answered it. He was asked if everything was all right and he said it was. The story then says that the cops saw DePape holding a hammer at his side and they told him to drop it. That was when he attacked Pelosi with it.

I will find that article and post it. And as I remember, no, it wasn’t a right wing rag.

seawulf575's avatar

Found it! It was https://www.today.com/video/paul-pelosi-returns-home-after-hammer-attack-left-him-hospitalized-152517701534. Apparently after it was published it was taken down because it didn’t match the official narrative. Now it says it expired.

chyna's avatar

^Maybe it hadn’t been fully researched and they had to remove it.

janbb's avatar

^^ So what does that mean? You’re going to play the “blame the victim” game because he didn’t respond the way you think he should have.

chyna's avatar

@seawulf575 But is there a perfect way that an 80ish year old man that was bashed in the head with a hammer should respond? One that spent 6 days in the hospital with a head injury? One that has months of rehab to look forward to?

Tropical_Willie's avatar

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~It is all Paul’s fault !

He should have had a shot gun and pumped 5 times.

So says someone of alt-right leanings.

filmfann's avatar

@Tropical_Willie I gotta say, despite my history of sick jokes and offensive humor, I don’t find the assault on an 82 year old man with a hammer a good target for jokes.

Yes, I see the ~

seawulf575's avatar

@chyna If you watch the report, they pulled a lot of the information from court documents…things that people have said in affidavits. I could understand an 80-something guy that just got hit with a hammer responding with a disjointed report. But a lot of this is the reports from the initial officers that showed up.

Another oddity of the “official story” is that somehow DePape is some uber-right wing nut job. He’s a hemp jewelry maker. His home has Gay Pride flags, BLM signs and Bernie for President signs around it. None of that screams “right wing”.

Do I believe DePape is innocent? Not at all. Do I believe it went down as the current narrative says it went down? Nope…I don’t believe that at all. I think there is more to the story is all. I think that DePape is pretty much a nut job, but I also think there is more to the story than he just randomly broke in and repeatedly threatened to tie up Paul Pelosi without really doing anything until the cops got there.

janbb's avatar

@seawulf575 Please post a credible source for those statements about his home.

This is one article I found about his background. Not seeing any gay love or Bernie posters mentioned there.

seawulf575's avatar

@janbb I looked closer and the house I was seeing was from a few years ago. It belonged to Gypsy Taub. So I will retract that portion. However your own “credible source” confirms the hemp jewelry part. He a nudist activist. Again…not the “right-wing extremist” sort. The “right wing extremist” claim uses 2 blog sites he supposedly used.

https://www.frenlyfrens.com
and
https://godisloving.wordpress.com/

As you can see, neither one actually exists. So I guess it is possible they were quickly snatched down after the attack. So I looked further. I found an archived version of the godisloving site:

https://archive.ph/AJCRs

I notice there are no spectacular items out there even though this is from August. But there are no actual entries. No comments. No nothing. So I have a bit of a hard time using these as “proof” of some uber-right nut job.

The deeper I dig, the less sense any of this makes.

chyna's avatar

Why all the conspiracy theories?
It happened. An 80 year old man was hit in the head with a hammer and his skull was damaged.
You are coming off as a nut job, wulfie.

jca2's avatar

A right wing friend on FB posts the way Wulfie posts, that it doesn’t make sense, the media is trying to make this guy out to be a right winger, there’s no proof, etc.

(just my opinion) It’s amazing how far we’ve sunk into “us vs. them” when a man can be attacked inside his house and there are people that doubt the narrative.

I’m sure at this point, the story is corroborated by the police that were present on the scene, the 911 calls, the social media posts by the attacker, etc.

It’s amazing to me that even with that, people doubt the story and think it’s fake. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, after the Sandy Hook shootings and people thinking those were actors and it was all made up, I should not be surprised.

seawulf575's avatar

@chyna Not really conspiracy theories being posted here. Just poking holes in the official narrative. Big difference. What I can never figure out is why so many of you just accept things without questioning. The ONLY time you start questioning is when you question someone that is questioning the narrative.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Wulfie you could be his lawyer !

seawulf575's avatar

@Tropical_Willie I’ve already shown things from official court documents that question the official story. His lawyer has all the ammo he needs to make a defense.

jca2's avatar

I clicked on @seawulf575‘s third link and it’s from some Big Brother Hell site which is obviously very right wing. Hardly what I would call a credible source.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Oh no tell it isn’t so @jca2. . . .

jca2's avatar

That link doesn’t work, either from @ragingloli or @seawulf575.

ragingloli's avatar

@jca2
Try it now. Fluther seems to delete the : from the https link.

jca2's avatar

The good thing is that all of this guy’s social media posts are going to be found and held against him.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

I think he may have been on the ADL’s RADAR.

ragingloli's avatar

@jca2 The updated link works.
It is a registry site, that shows that the guy created the “frenlyfrens” site in September.

jca2's avatar

Yeah it works now, @ragingloli.

I’m glad his writings are all able to be researched by prosecutors.

jca2's avatar

“How Republicans Fed a Misinformation Loop about the Pelosi Attack”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/05/us/politics/pelosi-attack-misinfo-republican-politicians.html

I would cut and paste this except it has links to other articles and it has interactive features which would not work with cut and paste,

seawulf575's avatar

@jca2 “I clicked on @seawulf575‘s third link and it’s from some Big Brother Hell site which is obviously very right wing.” That is supposedly the website DePape was using. But as I said…I can’t find actual articles on it. There are things you can click, but they open to a page that asks you if you want to comment. There is nothing from him…at least not that I can find. So how is that very right wing?

Tropical_Willie's avatar

HA HA HA HA !

janbb's avatar

And here’s who’s been spreading lies about the attack according to the NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/05/us/politics/pelosi-attack-misinfo-republican-politicians.html

Hope the link works.

jca2's avatar

@janbb I already posted that link three comments above yours.

janbb's avatar

@jca2 Oops! But it’s the piece so nice it’s worth posting twice. lol

Response moderated (Off-Topic)
janbb's avatar

And here’s a piece from the most right wing, sensationalist of the MSM I’m willing to put on my screen decrying the distortion of the facts:

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-edit-one-sick-nation-20221102-5aunhxoadbaerehhpnylz5bcba-story.html

seawulf575's avatar

@janbb considering it is an opinion piece from someone very left-wing, that’s generous of you. Your membership in the lefty club is intact.

Response moderated
janbb's avatar

@seawulf575 Frankly, I don’t want to be a member of any club that casts aspersions on an 82 year old man who was bludgeoned by a nut job. So I’ll take my club over yours any day of the week.

And I’m out.

Response moderated (Personal Attack)
Response moderated

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