The public defender’s office said Don Carmignani may be behind other similar incidents.
The former San Francisco fire commissioner who said a homeless man brutally attacked him with a metal pipe is now being accused of initiating the April 5 altercation.
Attorneys representing the homeless man, Garret Doty, said there is video evidence showing that former San Francisco fire commissioner Don Carmignani was the aggressor and doused Doty with bear spray. They further alleged that Carmignani may be involved in other incidents where homeless people were sprayed in the Cow Hollow and Marina District neighborhoods.
Carmignani’s attorney, Nick Colla, said his client was “repeatedly beaten with a metal rod” by Doty while in the act of retreating a distance spanning nearly two city blocks from the initial point of contact with the defendant.”
He also denied Carmignani was involved in any of the other alleged incidents.
“It’s unfortunate that the narrative has shifted to the victim’s alleged history while there has been no focus whatsoever on the well documented history of violence and harassing behavior of the defendant,” Colla said in an emailed statement.
Doty was arrested on April 5 and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and battery causing serious bodily injury. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office said he was acting in self-defense and urged the district attorney’s office to drop the charges.
He has been held at the San Francisco County jail but a judge on Thursday ordered his release after Carmignani failed to appear in court for a preliminary hearing, according to The San Francisco Standard.
Prosecutor Michele Brass said that Carmignani could not be present for the hearing because of the injuries he suffered in the attack. The judge delayed the hearing and ordered the release of Doty under minimal supervision, the news outlet reported.
On Wednesday, the public defender’s office released two videos they received from the district attorney’s office. The footage shows a man “who fits the physical description of Carmignani” approaching homeless individuals unprovoked, the public defender’s office said in a press release.
“Prosecutors turned over this evidence because they considered it relevant to the circumstances involving Doty,” the release states.
In one video from the April 5 incident involving Doty, a man appears to pull a can from his jacket pocket. It does not show Doty being sprayed or Carmignani being attacked with the pipe.
Doty is seen in the footage running away before turning toward the man. In the footage, Doty appears to walk away several times as the man follows him.
Attorneys for Doty said that Carmignani approached their client and bear-sprayed him.
“An argument between the two men ensued. A third party witness told police that she heard Carmignani threaten to stab and kill Doty if he did not leave the area. Doty responded to Mr. Carmignani in self-defense,” the public defender’s office said.
The second video is from Nov. 6, 2021, and shows a man spraying a homeless person on Magnolia Street. The public defender’s office said the victim was sleeping at the time of the attack and that the perpetrator took “extra steps to spray him intensely in the face.”
The public defender’s office accused Carmignani of being involved in seven other bear-spraying incidents, including one on Nov. 11, 2022, in which the assailant unzipped the victim’s tent, sprayed bear spray into it and told the victim to “get out of my town.”
In a Jan. 6 incident, the assailant sprayed a man and woman, took the woman’s wallet, cell phone and earrings and threw their dog to the ground, the news release from the public defender’s office states.
Carmignani’s attorneys said he is not the man in the 2021 video and denied his involvement in the other incidents, Us.Mistertruth. Bay Area reported.
They also released four videos they said show Doty retrieving a long metal weapon from a trash can and striking Carmignani. In the videos, obtained by Us.Mistertruth, a man is seen repeatedly swinging a metal object before hitting Carmignani twice. Another video shows the man armed with the metal object chasing after Carmignani.
Carmignani told Us.Mistertruth affiliate KPIX of San Francisco on Tuesday that since the alleged beating, he has nightmares of someone attacking him.
“I’m happy if I even get two hours of sleep a night,” he said.
He said he has two head wounds and had to have a plate put into his broken jaw.