Ex-San Francisco official hospitalized in pipe beatdown says charges to be dropped against homeless suspect

The former San Francisco fire commissioner who woke up in a hospital earlier this month with severe head injuries after a homeless man appeared to beat him with a pipe on video says the charges against the suspect will be dropped.

"Unfortunately, we have been informed by the district attorney's office that they have decided to dismiss the charges against Don Carmignani's attacker, Garret Doty, and release him back onto city streets with impunity," Colla & Ray, the law firm representing Carmignani, said in a statement Tuesday night. "According to the DA, the attack on Don was 'self defense.'"

Carmignani is still recovering from a fractured skull and other injuries suffered in what he describes as a brutal attack days before Easter.

San Francisco's jail roster still showed Doty, the suspect, was being held without bail Wednesday morning. His next hearing was scheduled for 9 a.m., and the San Francisco District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the state of the charges.

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