Pelosi was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. He was “violently assaulted” after breaking into the couple’s California home early Friday.
Paul Pelosi has been released from hospital after being ‘violently assaulted’ in a home burglary. (Image: AFP)
By Associated PressHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her husband, Paul Pelosi, was released from the hospital on Thursday after being treated for injuries from a violent assault last week in which he was attacked with a hammer.
Pelosi said: “Paul remains under doctor’s care as he continues a long recovery and recovery process. He’s home now.”
Law enforcement officers who responded early on Friday to the break-in witnessed Paul Pelosi being struck in the head at least once with a hammer, according to court documents. Officials said the attack was captured on the officers’ body cameras.
Pelosi was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. Speaker Pelosi said her husband was grateful to the 911 operator who referred the police to the family home, emergency services, ICU staff and all hospital staff for “their outstanding and compassionate life-saving treatment.”
“The Pelosi family is grateful for the wonderful outpouring of love, support and prayers from around the world,” she said.
Paul Pelosi’s release from the hospital comes as a federal official says the Canadian man accused of breaking into their home and assaulting him should have been flagged by immigration officials and blocked from returning to the US after exceeding its allowable entry more than two decades ago. CNN was the first to report Pelosi’s release from the hospital.
David DePape, 42, legally entered the United States in 2000 and later left the country and returned several times, including entering the San Diego border crossing at San Ysidro in March 2008, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity. because they are not authorized to discuss the matter.
Most Canadians do not require a visa to enter the US as a tourist and can stay for up to six months. The official said it was unclear why U.S. authorities relented DePape after he exceeded his participation in 2000.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about DePape’s entry into the United States after he violated immigration law. It acknowledged in a statement that DePape was allowed to enter San Diego from Tijuana on March 8, 2008, but declined to comment on other submissions.
San Francisco police said DePape confronted Paul Pelosi at the family’s Pacific Heights home on Oct. 28 and demanded to know where the House Speaker was. DePape pleaded not guilty to state charges Tuesday and was ordered to hold without bail. His public defender, Adam Lipson, said he looks forward to providing him with a “strong legal defense”.
DePape is indicted by the state for attempted murder, burglary and elder abuse. He also faces federal charges, including the attempted kidnapping of a US official. His state case will continue on Friday, although the defendant will not appear in court. An indictment of federal charges is not planned.
In the state court’s file, prosecutors have described the attack in stark terms, saying that Paul Pelosi, 82, was knocked unconscious by the hammer attack and woke up in a pool of his own blood.
DePape grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, but moved to California to be with a girlfriend, stepfather Gene DePape told The Associated Press last week. He has three children with two wives, he said. Gene DePape said the suspect had lived with him in Canada until he was 14 and had been a quiet kid.
DePape’s ex-girlfriend, Bay Area nudist activist Oxane “Gypsy” Taub, told the San Francisco Chronicle that she met DePape in Hawaii in 2000. The couple lived in Berkeley and had two children during their 15-year relationship.
US officials have long struggled to quantify – let alone track down – people entering the country legally and crossing visas, believed to be about 40% of the population illegally in the country.
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According to the Department of Homeland Security’s latest annual report, there were 684,499 visa violations from October 2019 to September 2020 among visitors arriving by plane or ship — more than the population of Vermont or Wyoming. The total number of exceedances is much larger, but has not been quantified because it does not include how many people arrive by land, the main way for Canadians and Mexicans to enter the United States.
The costs and technological hurdles to develop a POS system at crowded land crossings with Canada and Mexico are enormous. In the 12-month period to September 2020, more than 52,000 Canadians entering the U.S. by air or sea had exceeded their legal entry limits.
Despite the challenges, the US official said DePape’s crossing should have been recorded in immigration records, which in theory should have prevented authorities from admitting him.