The attorney for Rene Boucher, the Bowling Green man who assaulted Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, is calling for a new trial. Last week, attorney Matt Baker filed a 31 page motion for a new trial on behalf of Boucher. The Bowling Green Daily News reports that attorney Baker is arguing that the $575,000 in punitive and compensatory damages awarded to Senator Paul at last month’s trial were excessive.
Baker cited the extent of the senator’s injuries and Boucher’s cooperation with authorities during the investigation as justification for this position. Baker claimed, among other things, that the damages were excessive in nature due to factors such as Senator Paul never using narcotics to treat the pain or being hospitalized over his injuries.
“(Paul’s) last visit with a doctor was 30 days following the occurrence in issue,” Baker said in his motion. “His medical reports indicate consistently that, at best, his pain was ‘mild’ and/or ‘very mild.’ ”
This is only the latest chapter in a trial which has been wrought with questions concerning political bias, both in the media and the justice system. Despite prosecutors recommending a 21 month prison sentence for Boucher, he was sentenced to only 30 days in jail. This sentence struck many in the conservative and libertarian movements as extremely light. After all, the penalty for assaulting a member of Congress in a manner which results in personal injury is up to 10 years in prison.
Despite the media’s zeal to characterize this attack as having been motivated by a landscaping dispute, a narrative which has been questioned and disputed by neighbors of the Kentucky Senator, there is ample evidence of Boucher’s socialist leanings. His social media was filled with anti Trump, anti Republican postings which clearly demonstrated his simmering political resentment towards Republicans.
One hardly has to wonder how the news media would cover such an event were the politics of the attacker and the victim reversed.
A hearing has been set for March 20 to consider Boucher’s motion.
