Rene Boucher Plea Bargains
In case you forgot, a neighbor of Senator Rand Paul was charged with assaulting him. And the reason? Rene Boucher was angry by seeing the 55-year-old senator stack brush near Boucher’s property.
An attorney for Boucher did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Boucher faces a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted, but in the plea agreement federal prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of 21 months in prison. Appears to be excessive.
“Assaulting a member of Congress is an offense we take very seriously,” Josh Minkler, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in the statement. “Those who choose to commit such an act will be held accountable.”
I am surprised this does not happen more often as our representatives demonstrate a large degree of arrogance with their constituents.
sorry to hear this.
any prison time is cruel and and should be reserved only for those who are a real danger to others. and plea bargaining is just a clever way to get around the right not to incriminate oneself… a right people no longer understand.
i suspect that if Boucher was tried by a jury of his peers he might have got a fine or “30 days.” (I know, juries don’t set the punishment. judges do. But if juries did, i don’t think they would be as cruel as judges and prosecutors have become in the land of the free.)
It’s not that I approve of breaking your neighbor’s ribs, even when he “asks for it.” I just don’t approve of prosecutors who think that beating up a congressman is a bigger crime than beating up an ordinary person.
Not to mention Wells Fargo.
coberly:
Procedural wise, a defendant admits guild to a lesser crime or time. 85-90% of all trials are plea bargained in the US court system not to help the accused; but, it speeds up the process. If you go to trial you may get a harsher sentence as now the state has to work. Minorities and the poor are more likely to plea bargain.
In a republic governed by representational democratic legislatures, beating up such a representative is a bigger crime.
Beating up a representative is a bigger crime if the beating was related in some way to the person’s status as a representative. In this case, there is no evidence that it was. Boucher beat up Paul as a private citizen.
Eric
ah, yes, a very democratic point of view: all men are created equal, but representatives are more equal than common folk.