Man found not guilty of beating former SF fire commissioner with pipe

SAN FRANCISCO - Garret Doty, a man tried over beating a former San Francisco fire commissioner earlier this year with a metal pipe, has been found not guilty on all charges. 

The 24-year-old unhoused man was accused of beating Donald Carmignani over the head and repeatedly slashing him on April 5 near Magnolia and Laguna Streets in San Francisco's Marina District.

He was found not guilty of assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious bodily injury, and assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury.

Carmignani reportedly suffered from a fractured skull, broken jaw, and lacerations to his face and head.

Police said the assault happened at about 7:20 p.m. April 5. Doty was arrested later that evening near Laguna and Lombard Streets.

Doty was released a few weeks later after his arrest when Carmignani failed to show up to testify in court. According to Carmignani's lawyers, he did not show up because he was still recovering from his surgery on his fractured skull and broken jaw.

Doty and his public defender claimed self-defense and accused the former fire commissioner of dousing unhoused people with bear spray on at least eight different occasions, a claim Carmignani and his lawyer denied.

A press release said Carmignani's ex-mother-in-law testified under subpoena in May 2023 that he was the assailant pepper or bear-spraying unhoused people.

Carmignani didn't testify in Dodi's trial. He testified during the preliminary hearing where he invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination when he was questioned about using pepper or bear spray.

Following the verdict, public defender Kleigh Hathaway said this was always a case of self-defense and should never have been prosecuted. 

"From the very, very beginning I said, this has to be a self-defense case because if you look at the kind of person Mr. Carmignani is, based on the fact, he is the initial aggressor, he started the fight, he didn't back down," Hathaway said. " I think Mr. Doty was the one who finally had to make him stop."

A surveillance video of the incident shows Carmignani approaching Doty first, and a witness told police she heard him threatening to stab and kill Doty. 

Carmignani's father told KTVU his son was trying to get three homeless people who camped in front of their home to move. After they picked up and relocated down the street, Carmignani confronted them. 

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins released a brief statement following the verdict: "I would like to thank the jury for their service and respect their decision."

KTVU reporter Christien Kafton contributed to this report.