San Francisco DA flip flops on charging transient who bashed ex-fire commissioner with crowbar after public outcry
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04/26/2023 | 7:25 p.m
San Francisco prosecutors made an abrupt about-face on Wednesday and said they would now charge a tramp who hit a former fire commissioner with a crowbar – after The Post revealed they were quietly trying to drop the case.
The district attorney’s new rotation comes a day after prosecutors reportedly ruled that interim Garrett Doty acted in self-defense when he fractured former Commissioner Don Carmignani’s skull on April 5, telling him they were dropping the charges .
After Carmignani commented on the decision and released a new video showing the attack, they quickly backed down.
“We have not dismissed the charges in this case,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement.
“Holding violent criminals accountable is a top priority for our office to protect public safety,” Jenkins added. “Following the arrest of Garrett Allen Doty in connection with an attack on Don Carmignani on April 5, 2023, we filed multiple criminal charges against Doty and attempted to hold him for violent crimes.”
A day earlier, Carmignani said he had been informed the charges should be dropped because prosecutors said he instigated the attack by using pepper spray on the homeless man he was about to take away from outside his mother’s home .
Prosecutors said they had prepared a preliminary hearing in the case to give Carmignani a chance to make a statement on Wednesday – before postponing it to Thursday.
Former San Francisco Fire Department Commissioner Don Carmignani, 52, was beaten with a crowbar by a passerby on April 5. City prosecutors tried to quietly drop the charges against suspect Garrett Doty until The Post exposed the ploy.CBS News
“At our request, the court has continued this case for a hearing until tomorrow,” the prosecutor’s statement said. “We summoned [Carmignani] to appear tomorrow by his advice. The defender [Doty] remains in custody.”
Jenkins claimed that Carmignani “did not give an interview on this case, despite repeated requests from the San Francisco Police Department,” although Carmignani’s attorneys claimed the opposite was the case and that authorities have not contacted him since the attack to offer his perspective to experience.
“We hope he is available to testify in court as he now recalls giving an on camera media interview about the attack,” Jenkins said in the statement.
Footage shows Doty pulling back to hit Carmignani with a metal bar.Colla & Ray LLP
Carmignani, 53, has admitted he reached out to Doty after the city neglected his mother’s calls to 911 to ask for help – she had seen three people using drugs and harassing neighbors in their entryway.
Joe Alioto-Veronese, a prominent attorney and friend, said when Carmignani asked them to move, he was hit in the back of the head by Doty, injuring the ex-smoker’s skull and brain.
The video shows Doty swinging the metal bar, pinning a heavily bleeding Carmignani against the wall of a gas station shop, punching Carmignani and chasing him down the street. Doty, 24, was later arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
The former fire chief sustained head and brain injuries in the attack.Colla & Ray LLP
“[Doty] was actually seen blowing the whistle and walking around the neighborhood after the attack,” Alioto-Veronese said.
Dotty’s public defender, Kleigh Hathaway, is calling for the charges against her client to be dropped and made shocking allegations against the former fire chief to ABC News.
“Police have reason to believe that Carmignani was involved in eight separate acts of violence … perpetrated against the homeless,” she told the network, without elaborating.
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