Boucher set for July sentencing, attorney asks for dismissal
By Justin Story
jstory@bgdailynews.com
Jun 17, 2020
…In court filings,
Baker has framed the prosecution’s subsequent appeal of the 30-day sentence as the government going back on its word and exposing Boucher to the risk of double jeopardy due to his having completed his incarceration and paid his fine.
Shepard has argued that the government never gave up its right to appeal Boucher’s sentence and has taken the position in court filings that the 30-day sentence was too lenient in comparison to similar assault cases in the federal court system.
Baker, in his motion to dismiss, posits a scenario in which Boucher would be ordered to return to court for repeated sentencing hearings after further appeals from prosecutors unsatisfied with the latest punishment imposed.
The motion summarizes the events that led to the assault outside the senator’s house.
Boucher had previously disposed of piles of yard waste that had been collected in Paul’s yard within sight of Boucher’s property.
Baker has argued that Boucher believed the piles were amassed in response to Boucher trimming maple trees on Paul’s side of the property line that had grown over onto Boucher’s property.
The night before the assault, Boucher attempted to dispose of a pile by burning it with gasoline but suffered burns to his face, neck and arms when the pile ignited.
Boucher has maintained that Paul’s politics didn’t motivate his actions.
“There is something fundamentally wrong and patently unfair about this whole scenario,” Baker said in his motion. “It appears that the government is getting a ‘mulligan’ for the simple reason that the victim is a United States Senator.
If Senator Paul’s political opinions or political office were somehow related to the reason for Boucher’s actions, then an entirely different outcome might have been warranted and obtained at sentencing. But this case has never been about politics or a clash of political viewpoints; rather, it was a dispute over lawn maintenance in a gated community, where one of the principals just happened to be a United States Senator.”
The judge who originally sentenced Boucher, special judge Marianne Battani, is no longer participating in the case.
A senior U.S. District Court judge based in Michigan,
Battani announced earlier this month that she planned to step away from her duties after being diagnosed with cancer, the Detroit Free Press reported June 8.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman of the Eastern District of Michigan has been appointed as new special judge to hear Boucher’s case , according to federal court records.
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