United States v. Boucher, No. 18-5683 (6th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseSenator Rand Paul was mowing his lawn when he stopped to gather a few limbs in his path. Without warning, Boucher—Paul’s next-door neighbor, whom he had not spoken with in years—raced toward Paul and attacked him from behind. The impact broke six of Paul’s ribs, caused long-lasting damage to his lung, and led to several bouts of pneumonia. Boucher pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of Congress, 18 U.S.C. 351(e). Although his Guidelines sentencing range was 21-27 months in prison, the district court sentenced him to 30 days’ imprisonment. After denying Boucher’s motion to dismiss the government’s appeal, the Sixth Circuit vacated the sentence as substantively unreasonable and remanded for resentencing. Boucher may or may not be entitled to a downward variance after the district court reweighs the relevant 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) factors; the court gave undue weight to Boucher’s lack of political motivation in committing the assault and to his markers of “privilege,” such as his education, profession, and community standing, and did not adequately consider the seriousness of the offense of to sentencing disparities.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on September 26, 2018.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.