City Attorney Mara W. Elliott announced that her office has filed hate crime and battery charges against Roger Stefan Witthoeft Jr., a San Diego man who allegedly hurled racial slurs and struck an SDG&E worker after coming upon a late-night road closure where utility workers were repairing an electrical box.
The incident took place at about 11:10 p.m. on Sept. 15, 2021, at an SDG&E roadblock at the corner of Voltaire Street and Mendocino Boulevard in the community of Point Loma Heights.
Traffic cones, signs, and an SDG&E truck with hazard and amber lights warned motorists of the upcoming detour. According to witnesses, after being told of the road closure by an SDG&E traffic controller in a reflective shirt, neon vest, and hard hat, the defendant, Witthoeft Jr., exited his pickup truck and verbally and physically confronted the worker, a Latino man.
Witnesses told police that Witthoeft shouted a number of racial slurs at the worker, as well as variations on, “Why don’t you talk in English you f—ing immigrant?” and “Go back to your country you f—ing immigrant.” Witnesses told police that Witthoeft urged the worker to fight him, shoved the worker, and swung at the worker, knocking off his hardhat.
Witthoeft is the brother of Ashli Babbitt, the Ocean Beach woman killed by police as she tried to break into the Speaker’s Lobby through a door during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The 35-year-old Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was shot as she and other supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
Witthoeft was arraigned on March 1 on charges of committing battery, with a hate crime enhancement and violating the victim’s constitutional rights by the threat of force. The trial is scheduled for April.
San Diegans are encouraged to report hate crimes to the San Diego Police Department. Hate crimes are crimes, often involving violence, in which perpetrators act based on a bias against the victims’ race, color, religion, or national origin, or such factors as actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or gender.
