Boucher’s attorney fights back against prosecutor’s attempt to appeal sentence in Rand Paul assault case

Bowling Green attorney Matt Baker who represents Rene Boucher, the man accused of assaulting U.S. Senator Rand Paul, has filed a motion to dismiss the government’s appeal of Boucher’s 30-day sentence.

Boucher pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court March 9 to one count of assaulting a member of Congress for an assault on Paul last year. He has been sentenced to 30 days incarceration, a $10,000 fine and 100 hours of community service.

Federal prosecutors filed a notice to appeal the sentence June 29.

Baker argues in his motion filed July 8 that the government waived its right to an appeal after Boucher and federal prosecutors made a plea agreement.

“It is completely disingenuous, on the one hand, for the government to agree not to oppose a defendant’s request that a particular sentence or sentencing range is appropriate, and then — on the other hand — to appeal the sentence because it is not draconian enough to suit the government,” Baker said in his motion filed in in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Sixth District.