Don Carmignani was attacked outside his mother’s home in the Marina District in an April 5 attack that drew national attention and was hospitalized with serious injuries. Police later arrested 24-year-old Garret Doty, a homeless man at risk of physical harm and battery charges.
Now video evidence and police reports allegedly link the city’s former fire commissioner to a series of bear spray attacks on homeless people in the marina, threatening his case against Doty. A lawyer for Carmignani said he “vehemently denies that he is the alleged individual responsible for these acts against the homeless”.
In 2016, Carmignani was described by SF Weekly as “a Taurus of a man with slicked-back hair, beefy fists and a fondness for gold chains, bowling shirts Guy Fieri could envy him for, and Irish whiskey”.
But what else do we know about the businessman who has been placed at the center of a national debate about crime, punishment and the homelessness crisis?
Garret Doty’s attorneys believe this video shows former SF Fire Commissioner Don Carmignani as the man using bear spray. | Courtesy of the Office of the SF Public Defender
Domestic Violence Conviction: SFGate reported that Carmignani was arrested by San Francisco police in September 2013 on suspicion of domestic violence and criminal threats in connection with an incident reported by his then-wife Yvette, authorities said.
He eventually pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to a fine, probation, counseling and surrender of multiple firearms, SF Weekly reported in 2016.
Cannabis Don: Nicknamed “The Don of San Francisco” by online radio station All In Radio and “Cannabis Don” by SF Weekly, Carmignani was the largest medical marijuana dispensary licensee in the city, according to a March 2016 SF Weekly article .
“I live in San Francisco; My family came over in 1940,” Carmignani told All In Radio in a YouTube video posted on Oct. 4, 2022. “My grandfather and his brother and his father came here and made a name for themselves here in the city. My parents live in the house my grandfather built; I built the house next door. I have two beautiful children.”
The Moscone Recreation Center is located in the Marina District, the neighborhood where Don Carmignani’s mother lives. | Felix Uribe Jr for The Standard
Carmignani goes on to tell the radio show that he knew nothing about cannabis when he got into the business, but successfully obtained nearly 20 municipal cannabis permits.
“I have a technical background. I had a software company; I sold it for a minute,” Carmignani told the radio show. “I had a big software company – New York, Chicago, Boston. I have done e-discovery for law firms and corporations. I knew nothing about cannabis.”
Fire Commissioner: Carmignani was appointed to the Fire Commission — a city regulatory agency that oversees the SF fire department — by former Mayor Ed Lee in 2013, and held the post just four months before resigning after his arrest on domestic violence charges.
“I made my political side,” Carmignani told the radio show. “I was a fire commissioner. I was on the police advisory board. Mayor Lee was my man; I’m cool with London Breed”
Gavin Newsom attends the opening of his PlumpJack wine shop on October 29, 1992. | Steve Castillo/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Politically connected: Carmignani’s father owned the Balboa Cafe in the Marina District, an eatery leased to Governor Gavin Newsom’s PlumpJack group. The wine and hotel group is now owned by a blind trust managed by Shyla Hendrickson, a friend and lawyer for the Newsom family.
“Having known Gavin Newsom personally, I know him. I grew up with him,” Carmignani told All In Radio.
Attorney and San Francisco mayoral candidate Angela Alioto, whose son Joseph Alioto Veronese ran for district attorney of San Francisco in 2022 and is friends with Carmignani, told The Standard she has met Carmignani at various political events over the years.
San Francisco District Attorney candidate Joe Alioto Veronese speaks with The Standard’s Han Li on September 13, 2022. | Sophie Bearman/The Standard
“We all grew up together — the Carmignanis are another Italian family in the Marina that everyone knows,” Alioto said. “He’s always very kind […] a very big guy and makes a clear presence in the room, just a big happy guy. ‘Can I pick up the pastries,’ a guy like that.”
Larry Mazzola Jr., a Sacred Heart high school friend of Carmignani and executive director of the plumber’s union United Association Local 38, described his friend as a good guy who loves San Francisco.
“If Don did something to him first, you could say the first hit was self-defense, but not the next 10. It’s bloody ridiculous,” Mazzola said. “The city puts San Franciscans in these positions to defend themselves and interact with the homeless. Like the guy who hosed down the homeless man, the city put him in that position.”
Carmignani was contacted through his attorney for comment but did not respond in time for publication.
Doty, the suspect in the Carmignani attack, is now in court for a preliminary hearing on Thursday.
The Standard Staff can be reached at [email protected]
