Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Woman claims assault on Fallbrook street

One man's trash is...

David William Pepper was yelling, “That’s my stuff! That belongs to me! Get your hands off it!”
David William Pepper was yelling, “That’s my stuff! That belongs to me! Get your hands off it!”

‘I was bending over picking up trash, and the next thing I know I got two slugs on the side of my head.” The pink-haired woman demonstrated with her arms in the witness box of a North County Superior Court room, Monday, June 11, 2018. “It was like a fist, and boom boom... like that.” She said that while he was hitting her, the man was yelling, “That’s my stuff! That belongs to me! Get your hands off it!”

“I’m living in my truck right now.... I wasn’t collecting cans and bottles, I don’t do that.”

David William Pepper, 61, heard the testimony against him in court during a preliminary hearing. He pleads not-guilty to one felony count of harm to elder. In Sheriff’s records he is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall and 160 pounds.

The alleged victim, who turns 77 this year, said she was struck, “About six times.”

The witness said she moved to Fallbrook a year ago, and that she commonly picks up trash when she walks down the street. “Cause we’re not a trashy community.”

But her kind efforts were not rewarded the afternoon of May 23. “You’re not expecting, when you’re doing civic duty, to get threatened.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

It seemed a normal afternoon as she walked along the 1000 block of South Main Avenue south of Aviation Road and north of Ammunition Road. It’s a stretch lined with low-rent strips malls home to a thrift shop, a taqueria, a barbecue joint, an employment agency, and a liquor store. Pink Hair had just been to a local gym to take a shower. “I’m living in my truck right now,” she explained. She was on her way “home” when she saw what she called “garbage.” There were crunched-up cans and empty beer bottles near a warehouse. “Well, they were like stomped-on and flattened and like empty cans and cigarette butts and empty cases of beer.”

The pink-haired woman conceded the items might have value to someone, “A lot of time you will see homeless people collecting cans and bottles and taking them to the recycle place.” But not her, “I wasn’t collecting cans and bottles, I don’t do that.”

Her testimony suggests she may also have had an inkling that the cans, bottles, and such weren’t considered trash by someone. She says she looked around as she approached the refuse, because she had seen a man in that area before. “And I didn’t see him. And I thought, Good, now’s a quick time to pick up the paper cups and cans and all the stuff.”

Why was she looking around?

“Because I have picked up after him before.”

“Bullshit,” defendant Pepper audibly muttered during Pink Hair’s testimony. The bailiff admonished him, but it didn’t prevent him from doing it several more times.

While she was being assaulted, she later testified, a man ran from the warehouse with his phone, “He said, I’m calling the police!” She said of her alleged assailant, “That’s when he took off.”

It was about 3 pm when Sheriff’s deputies responded.

The alleged victim said this was not the first time she had seen her attacker. “He chased me a couple times, but I was too fast. Even with a bum foot.”

A prosecutor asked how hard the man hit her. “He wasn’t punching that hard,” the witness desmonstrated. “It wasn’t like he was someone who was sober.”

Did she have any lingering injuries?

“Just a couple of black and blue marks, and they went away.”

The witness identified the defendant in the courtroom as her attacker, “He got his hair cut, he looks a million times better. He looked like a bum, I mean a real bum. He got his beard done, he looks like a gentleman today.”

Even though he was cleaned up, she insisted, “I recognize him.”

Judge Timothy Casserly denied a defense request to reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor. The judge also declared Pepper in violation of probation on four prior cases, all misdemeanors: lodge without consent, resisting an officer, assault on a peace officer, and public intoxication or disorderly conduct.

Pepper is next due in San Diego’s North County Superior Courthouse on July 9 to confirm a date for trial.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Escondido planners nix office building switch to apartments

Not enough open space, not enough closets for Hickory Street plans
Next Article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
David William Pepper was yelling, “That’s my stuff! That belongs to me! Get your hands off it!”
David William Pepper was yelling, “That’s my stuff! That belongs to me! Get your hands off it!”

‘I was bending over picking up trash, and the next thing I know I got two slugs on the side of my head.” The pink-haired woman demonstrated with her arms in the witness box of a North County Superior Court room, Monday, June 11, 2018. “It was like a fist, and boom boom... like that.” She said that while he was hitting her, the man was yelling, “That’s my stuff! That belongs to me! Get your hands off it!”

“I’m living in my truck right now.... I wasn’t collecting cans and bottles, I don’t do that.”

David William Pepper, 61, heard the testimony against him in court during a preliminary hearing. He pleads not-guilty to one felony count of harm to elder. In Sheriff’s records he is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall and 160 pounds.

The alleged victim, who turns 77 this year, said she was struck, “About six times.”

The witness said she moved to Fallbrook a year ago, and that she commonly picks up trash when she walks down the street. “Cause we’re not a trashy community.”

But her kind efforts were not rewarded the afternoon of May 23. “You’re not expecting, when you’re doing civic duty, to get threatened.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

It seemed a normal afternoon as she walked along the 1000 block of South Main Avenue south of Aviation Road and north of Ammunition Road. It’s a stretch lined with low-rent strips malls home to a thrift shop, a taqueria, a barbecue joint, an employment agency, and a liquor store. Pink Hair had just been to a local gym to take a shower. “I’m living in my truck right now,” she explained. She was on her way “home” when she saw what she called “garbage.” There were crunched-up cans and empty beer bottles near a warehouse. “Well, they were like stomped-on and flattened and like empty cans and cigarette butts and empty cases of beer.”

The pink-haired woman conceded the items might have value to someone, “A lot of time you will see homeless people collecting cans and bottles and taking them to the recycle place.” But not her, “I wasn’t collecting cans and bottles, I don’t do that.”

Her testimony suggests she may also have had an inkling that the cans, bottles, and such weren’t considered trash by someone. She says she looked around as she approached the refuse, because she had seen a man in that area before. “And I didn’t see him. And I thought, Good, now’s a quick time to pick up the paper cups and cans and all the stuff.”

Why was she looking around?

“Because I have picked up after him before.”

“Bullshit,” defendant Pepper audibly muttered during Pink Hair’s testimony. The bailiff admonished him, but it didn’t prevent him from doing it several more times.

While she was being assaulted, she later testified, a man ran from the warehouse with his phone, “He said, I’m calling the police!” She said of her alleged assailant, “That’s when he took off.”

It was about 3 pm when Sheriff’s deputies responded.

The alleged victim said this was not the first time she had seen her attacker. “He chased me a couple times, but I was too fast. Even with a bum foot.”

A prosecutor asked how hard the man hit her. “He wasn’t punching that hard,” the witness desmonstrated. “It wasn’t like he was someone who was sober.”

Did she have any lingering injuries?

“Just a couple of black and blue marks, and they went away.”

The witness identified the defendant in the courtroom as her attacker, “He got his hair cut, he looks a million times better. He looked like a bum, I mean a real bum. He got his beard done, he looks like a gentleman today.”

Even though he was cleaned up, she insisted, “I recognize him.”

Judge Timothy Casserly denied a defense request to reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor. The judge also declared Pepper in violation of probation on four prior cases, all misdemeanors: lodge without consent, resisting an officer, assault on a peace officer, and public intoxication or disorderly conduct.

Pepper is next due in San Diego’s North County Superior Courthouse on July 9 to confirm a date for trial.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Dim Sum Tour, Warwick’s Holiday Open House

Events November 24-November 27, 2024
Next Article

Trophy truck crushes four at Baja 1000

"Two other racers on quads died too,"
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader