The guy who broke Rand Paul’s ribs over a pile of sticks is going to prison for 30 days.The Kentucky senator was piling up some branches he’d apparently gathered in the yard of his Bowling Green home last November. It was a very big pile of sticks: 10 feet wide, according to court documents reviewed by the Associated Press. And it pissed off his neighbor Rene Boucher.Boucher found the pile “unsightly,” according to the documents, and had them removed. But the branches came back — Paul wasn’t done with his yard work, apparently. Boucher lit that second pile on fire. He incurred second degree burns in the process.But the next day, Paul blew some leaves into Boucher’s yard and made yet another pile of branches, right in the same spot. Boucher couldn’t contain his anger. He tackled Paul to the ground, breaking several of the senator’s ribs.Boucher was charged and pleaded guilty to one felony charge of assaulting a member of Congress resulting in personal injury. The prosecution was looking to land Boucher a 21-month sentence, but he’ll only spend a month in prison.The attack was deemed not to have been politically motivated. But if it had been, Boucher would’ve faced much harsher charges.Paul, at the time, tweeted out news reports from Breitbart that indicated that the attacks weren’t about a landscaping dispute.
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The judge ruled, however, that the attack was a “dispute between neighbors,” isolated and without political motivation, according to the Associated Press.Paul, for his part, thinks the full 21-month sentence would’ve fit the crime, but he’s glad the prosecution managed to land a felony conviction."No one deserves to be violently assaulted,” Paul said in a statement to VICE News. “A felony conviction is appropriate and hopefully will deter the attacker from further violence. The original 21 month sentence requested would have been the appropriate punishment. I commend the FBI and Department of Justice for treating this violent, premeditated assault with the seriousness it deserves."