Apologizes to Nancy Pelosi, says suspect was a pacifist
A screen grab taken from video shows damage to the home of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after her husband Paul
Pelosi was assaulted during a break-in at their house in San Francisco, Calif., on Oct. 28, 2022. (KGO-TV via ABC via
Reuters)
Oxane “Gypsy” Taub said she doubts the allegations that her ex-lover
faces in the Oct. 28 hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“The whole thing is shrouded in secrecy,” Taub, 53, told The Epoch
Times on Nov. 22, a day before she released a lengthy open letter to
Nancy Pelosi on a website where Taub has posted nudist and other
content since 2008. The latest post includes an apology to Pelosi,
additional details about DePape, and a poem promoting peace.
The letter states, “I invite you all to look at the incident that
happened at Pelosi’s house with an open mind and an open heart.”
During a series of collect calls from a women’s prison in California,
Taub discussed her relationship with the Pelosi attack suspect, David
DePape, and her knowledge of his past. She also raised questions
about the night he was arrested at Pelosi’s San Francisco home.
‘A Really Sweet Person’
Taub noted that officials have refused to release records such as the
audio recording of Paul Pelosi’s call to 911, police officers’ bodycamera footage, and DePape’s mugshot.
“If things were the way they described, why not show everybody the
photos?” Taub said. “Everybody would just believe them.”
Instead, she said in the absence of those records questions swirl.
In her blog post, Taub urges Nancy Pelosi to call for the records to be
made public.
Oxane “Gypsy” Taub, 53, longtime
girlfriend of David DePape, in 2021
mugshot. (Courtesy California
Department of Corrections)
“If you have any control of this
investigation (which I am not going to
assume you do), please tell the
authorities to release the security camera
footage, the body camera footage from
different angles, the entire dispatch tape,
and witness interviews instead of
spreading conspiracy theories about
David,” Taub wrote.
Authorities allege that DePape, 42, broke into the Pelosi residence,
intending to kidnap and interrogate Nancy Pelosi, but she wasn’t
home.
When police responded to Paul Pelosi’s 911 call, officers saw the two
men struggling over a hammer, according to court records. DePape
allegedly wrested the weapon away and used it to strike the 80-yearold victim’s head. Paul Pelosi suffered serious injuries but survived;
DePape is charged with attempted murder and other offenses.
Taub said it makes no sense for someone like DePape, who long held
“progressive” ideals, to harbor ill will toward Pelosi, a longtime
standard bearer for the Democratic party.
“David was a peace activist. He never expressed any desires to solve
political problems through violence. He went to a lot of anti-war
protests and participated in nonviolent resistance,” Taub’s blog post
reads.
However, Taub had fallen out of touch with DePape in recent months,
and more recent acquaintances told the New York Post that DePape
had abused drugs and was spouting right-wing conspiracy theories.
Taub at one point conceded that she suspected that he could’ve been
under the influence of drugs. Still, she emphasized that violent
behavior would be “out of character” for DePape.
“David is a really sweet person, and I really don’t believe that he did
what he’s accused of,” she said.
To support her contentions, Taub asserted that DePape had shown no
aggressive tendencies during the 22 years she has known him. She
said DePape is extremely reserved.
‘Afraid of People’
When they first met, DePape hardly spoke to her. But Taub said she
sensed “a beautiful soul” inside of him.
“That’s what I love about him, is the true David that is in there,” she
said, hidden beneath “the rubble of trauma.”
After a while, DePape started opening up more to her, and he told her
about his traumatic childhood. DePape told her he grew up in a
family in which he would be punished if he expressed his emotions
or violated other household rules, Taub said.
She believes that DePape was severely abused.
“[A caregiver] poured a pot of boiling water on him when he was 2
years old, and he nearly died,” she said. “And his shirt, the design on
his shirt got imprinted on his skin. That’s how hot that water was.”
DePape eventually made his way from his native land, Canada, to
Hawaii. That’s where he and Taub met in 2000. She was born in
Russia and immigrated to New York in 1988. Twelve years later, she
went to Hawaii when she was eight months pregnant to tap into
social services for single mothers.
“I thought it would be a beautiful place to raise a baby,” Taub said.
She ran into DePape when they were both looking for a place to live.
“He was afraid to even talk,” Taub said. “My landlord in Hawaii said,
‘I never met anyone who was more afraid of people than David.’”
15 Years Together
Taub described DePape as a man who was so painfully shy that he
had difficulty getting a job. That rendered him perpetually homeless
and lonely.
“I was the only person he could talk to for many years,” she said. “I
was the only person he wasn’t afraid to have a conversation with. So
he’s very shy, very submissive.”
In contrast, Taub is outgoing. They became a couple. They moved to
California and had two children together, in addition to the child
fathered by another man. Taub said their relationship suffered
because of DePape’s inability to communicate well.
She and DePape didn’t really function as “a couple” but stayed
together to raise the children “because he was always helping me,”
Taub said. Although he couldn’t contribute financially, he would help
watch the children, she said.
Taub said she taught him meditation techniques to help him cope
with the emotional pain from his past.
“There were times when he definitely experienced joy being with us,
and he got better,” she said.
They lived together as a family for about 15 years, except for 18
months when DePape lived on the streets alone.
“When he came back, he was paranoid. He thought people were
following him,” she said. And, according to her children, “He thought
he might be Jesus.”
Apart But In Touch
Taub and DePape parted ways about seven years ago, but they
remained in touch periodically. DePape was so poor that he relied on
meals from soup kitchens, she said.
The last time she contacted DePape was about two weeks before the
Pelosi attack. Reflecting on her life while incarcerated, Taub felt
terrible that many months had elapsed since their last
communication. So she mailed a note to a post office box that DePape
rented in Berkeley, California.
“I sent him a letter saying that I love him and I miss him. And I really
want to help him heal and I want to, like, see him on a regular basis,”
Taub said.
She didn’t get a response, but she assumed the letter was delivered
because the postal service didn’t return the letter to her.
The next thing she knew, DePape had been arrested in the Pelosi
attack.
Based on everything Taub understood about him, it made no sense.
“He’s not gonna break into someone’s house and start threatening,
you know, politicians and their family members and physically
assaulting them,” she said. “If anyone knew David, they will tell you
that is the complete opposite of what he would behave like.”
Suspect’s Transportation a Mystery
Taub wonders how DePape made his way to the Pelosi residence. He
didn’t have enough money to buy a car and used a bicycle for
transportation.
“He had no way of getting to San Francisco at 2 in the morning.
Someone had to bring him there,” she said.
She thinks DePape was still living in Berkeley, about a 20-minute car
ride from San Francisco.
Taub also said details about DePape’s injuries are lacking. She would
like to know more about the extent and type of injuries he suffered.
Paul Pelosi (L) and then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) attend the 2018 White House
Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton on April 28, 2018. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Authorities have disclosed that Paul Pelosi underwent surgery to
repair a skull fracture and was hospitalized for six days as a result of
the attack. But she said she hasn’t heard descriptions of DePape’s
injuries.
Whatever happened, “David deserves justice, and the American
people deserve to know the truth,” Taub said.
She feels sympathetic to Nancy Pelosi.
“I still feel bad this has happened to her because she did not deserve
it.”
No Political Disagreements
Taub also said she wanted to set the record straight on a few points.
First, she acknowledges that she practices nudism, which she calls
“body freedom.” However, DePape was “not really that much of a
nudist,” she said. Rather, he attended nudist events to help with her
crusade.
“He basically just always supported me and my activism,” Taub said.
She said she likes Nancy Pelosi and can’t remember DePape saying
anything bad about her or her politics in years past.
“We never had any disagreements about a political issue,” Taub said.
Future Plans
About her August 2021 conviction on 20 charges related to her
repeated contact with a teen boy, Taub said, “I’m innocent,” noting
that the case is “under appeal.”
Her trial lawyer, Christopher Dobbins, has said that Taub “never
touched” the youth and that her overzealous intentions of helping
him were misinterpreted.
Taub said, “I’m just tired of being slandered all over the media. … The
last thing I would do is hurt a child. … I protect people. That’s why
I’m here—because I was trying to protect him. I was trying to help
him get to the youth shelter.”
She’s scheduled to be freed from prison on Jan. 4, 2023. Taub has
been unable to communicate with DePape while she remains
incarcerated; she wants to see him.
“I’m definitely going to visit him,” she said. “And that’s the first thing
I want to do.”
Janice Hisle
Author (Reporter)
Janice Hisle reports on former President Donald Trump’s campaign for the 2024 general election
ballot and related issues. Before joining The Epoch Times, she worked for more than two decades as
a reporter for newspapers in Ohio and authored several books. She is a graduate of Kent State
University’s journalism program. You can reach Janice at: janice.hisle@epochtimes.us