A suspect in the beating attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband was ordered to stand trial on charges including attempted murder, assault and elder abuse, after a hearing which included the playing of a police interview where he spoke of an “evil in Washington.” Judge Stephen Murphy set Dec. 28 date for David DePape, 42, to be arraigned on the charges, which also include burglary, false imprisonment and threatening family members of public officials. He is being held without bail in the Oct. 28 attack, which left Paul Pelosi, 82, seriously injured from a hammer blow that fractured his skull in two places, reports the Wall Street Journal. In a five-hour preliminary hearing, prosecutors presented evidence that they said show DePape, a Canadian immigrant living in Richmond, Ca., planned to take Mrs. Pelosi hostage “and get her to tell the truth.”
They said he instead assaulted her husband when he found him alone after using a hammer to break out the glass window of french doors to the couple’s home in San Francisco’s upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood. The glass proved so hard he had to swing the hammer at it 15 times to break it. In a taped interviewed played in court, DePape said the evil he sees starts with former Sen. Hillary Clinton. He said he was particularly upset with Mrs. Pelosi. “Honestly, day in and day out, she is lying every day,” he said. Police Lt. Carla Hurley said he told her he planned to harm the speaker if she didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear. He said she would end up in a wheelchair if she didn’t comply, she testified. The officer said DePape told her he wanted to target other Democrats including California Gov. Gavin Newsom as well as Democratic supporters including actor Tom Hanks. A public defender for DePape argued his attack on Pelosi wasn’t premeditated, a requirement to prove attempted murder. Prosecutors said his own statements showed otherwise. “I told him that I’m not going to surrender,” DePape told police. “If you stop me, you will take the punishment instead.”