SAN DIEGO — A man facing battery and hate-crime charges for allegedly attacking and hurling racial slurs at a utility worker last year near Ocean Beach is the brother of Ashli Babbitt, the San Diego woman who was shot and killed by a police officer Jan. 6, 2021, inside the U.S. Capitol.
Roger Stefan Witthoeft, Jr., 33, was arraigned March 1 on misdemeanor charges of battery with a hate crime enhancement and violating the victim's constitutional rights by threat of force, according to the San Diego City Attorney's Office.
He pleaded not guilty in San Diego Superior Court.
Witthoeft is accused of shoving and trying to punch a San Diego Gas & Electric traffic controller last September while shouting "a number of racial slurs" at the victim, who is Latino, and telling him to "Go back to your country you (expletive) immigrant," according to the City Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors said Witthoeft is also accused of asking the man, "Why don't you talk in English you (expletive) immigrant?" as well as challenging the worker to fight, shoving him and swinging at him, which knocked off his hardhat.
Witthoeft could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The Public Defender's Office represented him at his arraignment. It was unclear Tuesday which deputy public defender was handling his case.
Public records identify Witthoeft as Babbitt's brother, and court records show they were co-defendants in a 2018 lawsuit alleging they and their Spring Valley-based pool services company failed to repay a high-interest cash advance they had secured and both signed. Witthoeft also identified himself as Babbitt's brother last year in an interview with the New York Times.
Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, was at the head of a mob when a Capitol police officer fatally shot her. She appeared to be trying to breach a set of doors leading to the Speaker's Lobby, a hallway that connects to the House chamber.
Former President Donald Trump and many of his supporters have portrayed Babbitt as a martyr who was unjustly killed while protesting the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump called her "an incredible person" in a taped, posthumous birthday greeting to her in October. Trump has also demanded the Justice Department reinvestigate Babbitt's death, though the officer who shot her was cleared of any wrongdoing by two prior federal investigations.
In social media posts that have since been removed, Babbitt, who embraced QAnon conspiracy theories online and reportedly flew a QAnon flag above her Ocean Beach home, railed against illegal immigration and made vague references to threats along the border.
Now, her brother stands accused of battering a Latino man and berating him with racial slurs. The incident occurred around 11:10 p.m. Sept. 14 in an area near Ocean Beach and Point Loma, at Voltaire Street and Mendocino Boulevard, according to a criminal complaint and prosecutors.
An SDG&E crew making repairs had set up a roadblock that Witthoeft happened upon, according to the City Attorney's Office, which typically prosecutes misdemeanor cases. When the SDG&E traffic controller told Witthoeft about the road closure, he got out of his pickup and "verbally and physically confronted the worker," prosecutors said.
The City Attorney's Office said witnesses told police about Witthoeft's use of racial slurs, anti-immigrant accusations and the physical confrontation.
Witthoeft told the New York Times last year that he and several other family members worked with Babbitt at Fowler's Pool Service & Supply, Inc., which she and her husband, Aaron, owned. On the day Babbitt was shot last year, at a time when COVID-19 vaccines were not yet widely available, the front door of the business was adorned with a sign against health protocols that started: "Mask Free Autonomous Zone, Better Known as America."
Court records showed the business was sued twice in the past several years, in San Diego and New York, over breach of contract issues.
____
