The Fixanalysis the Mystery of the Attack on Sen. Rand Paul Grows Yet Again
An entrance to the Rivergreen gated community in Bowling Light-green, Ky. (Luke Sharrett/For The Washington Mail)
BOWLING Green, Ky. — Rand Paul was on the verge of becoming a powerful senator and the nation's leading libertarian. His neighbor was a successful md and Kennedy-style Democrat who favored nationalized medicine.
They might accept sparred over health intendance or taxes, but an acquaintance of both said they stood in their yards roughly a decade ago shouting at each other over the grass clippings that Paul's backyard mower had shot onto Rene Boucher's property.
" 'I enquire him, I tell him and he won't pay attention,' " the acquaintance, Beak Goodwin, recalls Boucher maxim after the argument. " 'I of these days.' "
That day might have come last calendar month, when Boucher's attorney said in an interview that his customer attacked Paul over long-simmering disagreements between the two virtually the care of grass, trees and other landscaping on their adjacent properties in a gated customs.
The account marks the kickoff time either side has offered a reason for one of the nation'due south nearly talked-about political mysteries: What sparked the worst attack on a sitting senator in decades?
The assault left Paul, 54, with half-dozen cracked ribs and a case of pneumonia, and it briefly sidelined the Republican senator during a crucial debate over a tax overhaul in Washington. Boucher, 59, has pleaded non guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge in the case and could even so face more serious consequences.
Federal prosecutors said they are investigating the instance. Boucher could be charged under several federal statutes, including one rarely used provision that bars assaults on members of Congress and other high-ranking government officials.
Intrigue has deepened in the weeks since the Nov. 3 assail equally Paul and Boucher have remained largely quiet about what prompted it. Neither would comment for this article.
Into the vacuum, competing theories for the assault have been floated, like so many Washington trial balloons. They range from the mundane, such as bad claret over spoiled views of a lake, to the outlandish — an antifa plot.
Some conservative media outlets have suggested that the attack might have been motivated by Boucher'due south liberal politics. Paul appeared to endorse that idea by retweeting links to the manufactures. Boucher, a registered Democrat, was critical of President Trump on his now-deleted Facebook folio.
Sen. Rand Paul R-Ky.) emerges from the Senate dining room on Nov. fourteen. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Paul, who gave his first telly interview about the assail last week on Fox News, said he had not talked to Boucher in x years just did not say what caused the assault. He said it was beside the point.
"After my ribs were broken, then he said things to me to try to indicate why he was unhappy, just I recollect the — I guess, to me, the bottom line is information technology isn't and then of import. If someone mugs yous, is it actually justified for whatever reason?" Paul said.
Kelley Paul, the senator'due south wife, also wrote an op-ed for CNN, casting doubt on the idea that landscaping or annihilation else Paul did had prompted the set on. She said any dispute existed only in Boucher's "troubled heed."
"Information technology is incredibly hurtful that some news outlets have victimized Rand a second time as he struggles to recover," Kelley Paul wrote.
But and so far, interviews with friends and area residents who would talk — and a review of court files and police records that have been made public — reveal only the blazon of modest-fourth dimension neighborly disharmonize that has vexed many a suburban human relationship.
"There is absolutely no political motivation behind this," said Boucher's attorney Matthew J. Bakery. "It all stems from maintenance, or lack of it, at these two neighboring properties."
Boucher, who employed professional landscapers, didn't see eye-to-centre with the senator, who delighted in doing his ain yard work and had an independent streak about the care of his property, in keeping with his libertarian beliefs.
"Rene is meticulous about a lot of items in life. He's not bad. It's the doctor in him. Everything had to exist just right. The yard was i of them," Goodwin said. "It's been a running feud."
The office of Sen. Rand Paul in Bowling Greenish, Ky. (Luke Sharrett/For The Washington Postal service)
Inside Rivergreen'southward gates
For more than a calendar month, the heavy wrought-iron gates of the Rivergreen community have concealed the bizarre saga. With a buzz, they slowly swung open on a recent Sunday.
Despite calls to dozens of residents, but one was interested in taking a reporter about the scene of the assault. Jim Skaggs, the co-developer of Rivergreen and a local Republican political leader, said the attack has divided residents and left them scratching their heads.
"I'm dumbfounded," Skaggs said, echoing the sentiments of others in the neighborhood. "Yous have two wealthy, very achieved doctors. Information technology's difficult to empathise this level of action arising from a property dispute."
As Skaggs talked, he steered his SUV past the large custom homes of doctors, lawyers and bankers. The properties are nestled on rolling light-green lots around a sparkling, sixteen-acre man-made lake.
Skaggs came to a stop between Boucher's and Paul's homes. Boucher, a retired and divorced anesthesiologist, and Paul, an ophthalmologist, have been neighbors for 17 years and in one case worked at the same hospital.
Boucher's gabled habitation sits on a corner lot across a sloping expanse of grass and copse from Paul'south redbrick Colonial. It was in that territory that Kentucky State Police said the assail occurred.
Baker said the sometime tensions over landscaping were triggered November. iii by a fresh incident that he declined to go into particular well-nigh.
Attorney Matthew J. Baker, from left, and his customer, Rene Boucher appear in court for an arraignment hearing Nov. nine at the Warren County Justice Center in Bowling Greenish, Ky. (Austin Anthony/Bowling Green Daily News/Associated Press)
In his interview with Fox News, Paul said he was blindsided by the attack.
"I was working in my grand with my earmuffs on — you know, to protect my hearing from the mower — and I had gotten off the mower, facing downhill, and the assaulter came running full blown," Paul said. "I never saw him, I never had conversation — in fact, the weird thing is, I haven't talked to him in ten years."
Kentucky State Police said they were called to the scene soon after 3:20 p.m., according to a police report. Authorities said Boucher admitted going onto Paul'south property and tackling him.
Afterward an investigator interviewed both men and left the scene to consult with a prosecutor, Boucher was charged with quaternary-degree assault after 8 that night, Baker said.
Police said that Paul initially refused medical intendance, thinking the injuries were minor, but he eventually was treated as the extent of the damage done by the tackle became more apparent.
"He is profoundly regretful," Baker said of Boucher. "He wishes this had never happened."
Friends and neighbors said both men were similarly driven and devoted to medicine, but with i crucial difference.
Skaggs said Boucher was exacting about the standards for his thousand — landscaping bags filled with waste matter were a mutual sight on his holding. Neighbors said Paul had a reputation for a more than relaxed style that some felt didn't always jibe with a community that features gas lamps, Greek statuary and a 13-page package of rules.
The senator had a pumpkin patch, compost and unraked leaves beneath some of his copse. Goodwin said it annoyed Boucher that Paul did not consistently cutting his grass to the same height, and leaves from Paul's trees blew on his property.
Baker, Boucher'south chaser, said Paul and his client had stopped speaking for a number of years because of these landscaping issues. He described the silence as a cold state of war of sorts.
Friends of Paul in the neighborhood said the story rings hollow and that such petty problems would never justify an attack on the senator.
Several said they were unaware of any such problems and said Paul advisedly maintained his property. If Boucher had problems with Paul, several current and former representatives of the homeowner's association said, he had not brought them to the board in contempo years.
"They're just good neighbors," Gayla Warner said of the Pauls. "We never knew of any conflict."
The downtown square in Bowling Green, Ky. (Luke Sharrett/For The Washington Post)
A difficult time
But Boucher has had disputes over his property before.
Rivergreen residents said Boucher's family unit had previously had a disagreement with another neighbor over the fate of a tree about the border of their properties. The Bouchers wanted to continue the tree, but the neighbour wanted it removed to articulate the way for a business firm projection.
And in 2012, Boucher sued the prospective buyers of his home subsequently they pulled out of a contract, according to court records.
Boucher sued the couple for breach of contract and slander, proverb they had spread simulated stories that Boucher was "untruthful and is engaging in unscrupulous acts" to sell his home. Boucher was worried the comments would affect his reputation as a doctor.
The couple denied the allegations, and the accommodate was eventually settled. None of the parties involved responded to requests for comment.
The rancor capped a decade or and then of difficulty for Boucher.
In 2005, Boucher suffered a astringent blow while bicycling that left him unable to work, according to court records. During his recovery, Boucher developed a rice-filled "Therm-a-Vest" that could exist heated to help ease cervix and dorsum pain. It was sold on the cable TV shopping network QVC and in stores.
Three years afterward, his wife of 22 years filed for divorce, saying the couple's wedlock was "irretrievably broken," co-ordinate to courtroom records. The pair had two adult children, and divorce records indicate that Boucher was left alone in the family unit'southward large dwelling, which he was attempting to sell then as well. Boucher's family members did non respond to requests for comment.
Despite the issues, in that location was lilliputian to presage the violent attack on Paul.
Boucher has no criminal record, and call records from the Warren Canton Sheriff'south Office and Kentucky Land Police do not bespeak that government were previously called to bargain with disputes between the senator and his neighbour.
The historic Capital Arts Center on the downtown square in Bowling Greenish, Ky. (Luke Sharrett/For The Washington Post)
Kentucky Land Police are wrapping up their investigation into the incident. State prosecutors will and so determine whether the assault rises to the level of a felony accuse in Kentucky.
Skaggs said the attack would probably never have occurred if Boucher had his style. Boucher had been trying to sell his home to motion closer to his children, Skaggs said. They are out of state.
Danny Renshaw, another neighbor, said the case should requite anyone with neighbors pause.
"Nosotros never know what our neighbors are thinking — none of us," Renshaw said. "You run across stuff that happens in New York or L.A. or Florida and call up, that would never happen in our neighborhood. But you just never know what someone volition practice or what is going on in their listen."
Read more:
As new details of Rand Paul'due south beating emerge, let'south recall the fierce history of lawn maintenance
Rand Paul returns to Washington afterward attack at his domicile
'A disturbed person': The mystery backside the attack on Rand Paul grows, as Paul's side weighs in
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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/intrigue-grows-over-what-sparked-the-attack-on-rand-paul/2017/12/06/3fde5cc0-d312-11e7-95bf-df7c19270879_story.html
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