Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) neighbor “lost his temper” over yard debris that the senator placed near the line between their two properties when he tackled Paul last year, according to court documents.
A sentencing memorandum filed Friday by the attorney for Paul’s neighbor, Rene Boucher, and obtained by the Bowling Green Daily News states that Boucher grew upset after Paul repeatedly placed “unsightly” debris near his residence.
Paul suffered six broken ribs after being tackled by Boucher last November. The neighbor pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of Congress earlier this year and is set to be sentenced on Friday.
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Boucher is requesting that he be granted probation in the case, while prosecutors call for a sentence of 21 months in prison.
The dispute over the debris reportedly began in September 2017, when the senator placed a pile of tree limbs near Boucher’s property. The neighbor removed the pile in October, in portable dumpsters.
“Even though this debris was not on Dr. Boucher’s property, he viewed it as unsightly — as it was placed directly in his line of sight from his patio and the back door of his house,” the document states.
Paul later placed more of the limbs in two more piles that October.
Boucher burned some of the debris on Nov. 2, but used gasoline and suffered second-degree burns from the fire, according to the memorandum.
The next day, the senator blew leaves with a lawnmower onto Boucher’s property and created another pile of branches, the document states.
“As Dr. Boucher has stated throughout, he lost his temper and tackled Rand Paul as Paul was carrying branches from another location on his property and placing them on the property line,” the document reads.
Boucher and his attorney argue that probation would be a more appropriate punishment for him tackling the senator.
“Other than the isolated incident that is in issue, Dr. Boucher has been a pillar of his community, a solid citizen, a family man and a devout Christian,” the attorney wrote in his memorandum.
Paul argued in a victim impact statement filed last month that he “can only assume that [Boucher’s] deep-seated anger towards me co-mingles with his hatred of my political policies” and claims that Boucher suffers from a “personality disorder, substance abuse, intense political hatred or all of the above,” according to the Daily News.
Boucher’s attorney called Paul’s allegations “completely unfounded.”
“Dr. Boucher has adamantly denied any such political motivations throughout, as even the suggestion of them is completely unfounded and simply not true,” his attorney said.
Paul’s office reached out to The Hill on Wednesday with a statement.
“Before Senator Paul was violently attacked from behind, he had no conversations or discussions with the attacker. There was no ‘longstanding dispute.’ This description is untrue. It is impossible to have a dispute when no words of disagreement were ever spoken — neither immediately nor at any other time before the attack occurred. In the decade prior to the attack, Senator Paul had no contact with the attacker.”
“The attack was a pre-meditated assault that broke six of the Senator’s ribs and was complicated by fluid and blood around the lung and recurrent pneumonia. Any description of this attack that implies a “yard dispute” justifies such violence and misses the point.”
Updated 6:06 p.m.