Costs could also be dropped in brutal assault on former San Francisco Hearth Commissioner in Marina District
SAN FRANCISCO — Prosecutors have alerted former San Francisco Fire Department Commissioner Don Carmignani that they will drop the charges he suffered a caning in front of his mother’s home in the city’s Marina District Earlier this month, according to his attorney.
Carmigiani, 53, was hit with a metal pipe and suffered serious head injuries, including a fractured skull. Hours earlier, he and his mother called 911 to report that three homeless people had set up camp at her home and said they had threatened his family with violence.
Carmigiani said neither the San Francisco Police Department nor homeless service providers responded to emergency calls. That evening he passed by the house and after telling the group to leave the house said that two people approached him threateningly, one of whom attacked him with the metal pipe.
In his first public statements since the attack, Carmignani said prosecutors had alerted his attorney that they were dismissing the case based on new evidence they had received — a video of a person alleging prosecutors Carmignani was using bear spray against him Homeless people in another incident.
Carmignani denies he is the person in the video and said the decision to dismiss the case came as a surprise to him.
Carmignani is still recovering from his serious injuries and said his doctor told him if his attacker had hit him in a specific spot again, he would have lost his life.
“I didn’t go out to fight anymore, I try to get them out on the street, go to the park,” Carmignani said. “It’s three against one. I know the odds. I’m 52 years old. I have two hip prostheses. I’m an old guy, I could have been a dead guy.”
Carmignani said his attorney pointed out that other evidence of assaults on homeless people believed to have been committed by Carmignani led to the decision to dismiss the case.
“All I know is that they showed me an interesting person and that wasn’t me,” he said.
After the attack, Garret Allen Doty, 24, was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault and violent assault.
A spokeswoman for the public defender’s office said Doty’s public defender “received a discovery from prosecutors containing evidence of previous unprovoked attacks on the homeless allegedly committed by Carmignani,” but she would not confirm if district attorney Brooke Jenkins to do so would drop the charges.
The prosecutor’s office did not respond to requests to drop the charges. The preliminary hearing for Doty is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday morning in the Hall of Justice.
Carmignani noted that neither the police department nor the prosecutor’s office interviewed him to get his version of events.
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Carmignani said he was saddened by this new development and believed the city was in a complete state of chaos. He says the suspect is a threat to the community and he and his family fear for their lives living in the Marina District.
He said he thinks the city’s government has failed its residents, though he stopped blaming District Attorney Jenkins, and said he thinks politicians’ hands are tied.
After the attack, both Jenkins and Police Chief Bill Scott said the attack was the type of street crime that had rocked the city and that they were both committed to fighting it.
“I understand how a violent attack like this can upset a community and I am committed to holding the accused accountable so we send the strongest message that violence like this is unacceptable,” the prosecutor said in one Explanation. “I send strength to the victim as he continues his recovery and we will do everything in our power to achieve justice for the victim and the traumatized community.”
“Our hearts are with him and his family,” Scott told KPIX. “He is expected to survive his injuries, which is good news. But those kinds of brutal attacks and those kinds of brazen attacks, those are the things that scare people.”
If convicted on all charges, Doty faces up to seven years in prison.
