SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A federal judge on Wednesday denied Paul Pelosi attack suspect David DePape’s request to have his high-profile trial moved from San Francisco to Eureka in extreme northwestern California.
DePape, 43, stands accused of breaking into former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home this past October and beating her husband, Paul, 83, with a hammer. Police say DePape broke a window to gain entry — carrying zip ties and rope in addition to the hammer — and later told them he was looking for Nancy Pelosi.
DePape’s lawyers, public defenders Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang, sought to have proceedings moved to Eureka because they said publicity in the case threatened DePape’s right to a fair trial. They commissioned a survey that they said showed potential jurors in the Bay Area already believed DePape was guilty.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, a Joe Biden appointee, said the case against DePape is a “notorious national case” and that people in Eureka were likely exposed to the same media coverage of the case as anywhere else. The small juror pool in Eureka, however, was the primary factor in denying the motion to change venue.
“The main reason is I think it would be very difficult to find a fair and impartial jury versus what we have here,” Corley said.
Corley added that there were only 300,000 people to pull from in Eureka compared to the 5.5 million people that can be pulled from in the Bay Area, as well as the initial juror pool size: 30,000 in the Bay Area versus just 7,000 for an initial pool in Eureka.
“We have so many more people to pull from,” Corley told Chuang. “If you’re drawing from a larger pool you’re more likely to hit on people that are impartial.”
Chuang argued people in Eureka had less “depth of familiarity” with the case, as their poll showed people there saw less media coverage of footage of the attack, the 911 call Paul Pelosi made and an interview with DePape after his arrest.
Chuang also argued that many of the people in the Bay Area juror pool were represented by Nancy Pelosi during her time in Congress.
“It would be very, very difficult for them to remain impartial. [Nancy Pelosi] is very popular,” Chuang said.
“I'm not persuaded at all that we can't find jurors here just because Pelosi was their congressperson,” Corley replied. Corley added it did not matter if Pelosi represented a potential juror because there is no guarantee that a potential juror even voted for Pelosi.
Corley also said moving the trial to Eureka would be difficult for people called to testify at trial, as they would need to be driven to Eureka and stay for the duration of the trial.
Chuang then proposed bringing jurors from Eureka to San Francisco, a move that Corley called “extraordinary.” Transporting people would involve eliminating many of the people from the pool because it would create hardship, Corley said.
People in Eureka “don’t have a different pool of information” than people in San Francisco, according to Helen Gilbert with the U.S. Attorney's Office. Furthermore, she argued, the pool in Eureka is less diverse than the pool in the Bay Area — making it even harder to find an impartial jury.
DePape has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of attempting to kidnap a federal official and assaulting a federal official’s family member. He has also pleaded not guilty to state charges of attempted murder, burglary, and elder abuse.
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