A brother of rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot while participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, has been convicted of a hate crime for hurling racial slurs and assaulting a Latino SDG&E worker in Point Loma.
Ocean Beach resident Roger Stefan Witthoeft Jr., 34, has been convicted of misdemeanor battery with a hate crime allegation and violating the victim’s civil rights in the Sept. 14, 2021, attack on the traffic controller.
Roger Stefan Witthoeft Jr.
During the assault, Witthoeft approached an SDG&E worker who was diverting traffic near the intersection of Mendocino Boulevard and Voltaire Street, according to the City Attorney’s office. After slapping the worker, Witthoeft told the victim to "talk in English you (expletive) immigrant" and to "go back to your country."
Authorities said he faces up to a year in jail, one year of probation and a $1,000 fine in the hate crime attack of the SDG&E worker. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 13.
“This jury has sent a clear message that violent, abusive, and racist conduct like this has no place in our community,” San Diego City Attorney Mara W. Elliott said in a statement. “My Office will continue to prosecute and hold accountable people who commit hate crimes, and I urge victims and witnesses to report all such activity.”
Witthoeft has had at least two other run-ins with authorities, the City Attorney’s office said. In 2016, he was convicted of vandalizing a 71-year-old Latino man’s truck in Lakeside. After being asked by the victim to move his pickup truck, Witthoeft kicked the victim’s truck’s door and kicked a window out of its camper shell.
Sometime around January 2022 – about four months after attacking the SDG&E employee – Witthoeft faced new criminal charges after getting into an altercation with another man on Muir Avenue in Ocean Beach.
In that attack, Witthoeft allegedly knocked a man to the ground and stomped on his phone after becoming angry with the victim for blocking a sidewalk with his vehicle. At the time, the victim was helping a disabled friend out of the car, according to the City Attorney’s office.
