What happened to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul on his own property on Nov. 3, 2017, should’ve never happened.

His attacker and former neighbor, Rene Boucher, attacked Paul on that day without any sort of justification. As a result of his unwarranted attack Paul suffered six broken ribs, a portion of Paul’s lung had to be removed, a hernia and several bouts with pneumonia, along with the constant pain he ensued for months and months after the attacked, not to mention the mental anguish that Boucher put Paul and his family through.

There was no doubt that Boucher committed a criminal act on that day and deserved to be punished for it. We’ve said that on this opinion page before and we stand by it today.

We thought when Boucher was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment, ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and perform community service that the case was over.

But we were wrong. A civil case in 2019 ended in which Boucher was ordered to pay the Pauls $582,834.82 Boucher sold his house next to the Pauls and proceeds from that sale, totaling $482,078.12, were placed in an account by the Warren County Clerk’s Office while Boucher and his lawyer, Matt Baker, appealed the amount.

Boucher was ordered to place an additional $147,921.88 into the account in June 2019. The $630,000 constitutes what is known as an appeal bond, into which the losing party in a civil matter pays while the case is under appeal, typically to show that the party can and will pay the judgment rendered against them as well as additional costs that arise during the appeal. The funds cannot be released from the account without a court order. Baker has asked the Kentucky Supreme Court to review the civil case judgment.

Then in September 2019, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the sentence of Boucher. The court said Boucher’s 30-day punishment was so far outside the 21-to-27 month sentencing guidelines that he must be re-sentenced. The appeals court took no position on an appropriate sentence, saying the district court judge retains “ample discretion.”

Last week, we learned that Boucher was sentenced by a federal judge to serve eight months in prison and six months of home confinement, but he will remain free while federal prosecutors decide whether to file another appeal. Boucher was given credit for the 30 days he’s already served behind bars.

Federal prosecutors had sought a 21-month sentence for Boucher but U.S District Judge Matthew Leitman imposed a lesser sentence than the 21 months in prison sought by Special Prosecutor Bradley Shepard, outlining several factors that weighed into his decision.

Leitman said Boucher’s work in the community through Holy Spirit Catholic Church, his eight years of active-duty Army service and a civil judgment against Boucher – a Warren Circuit Court jury last year directed Boucher to pay more than $580,000 in damages to Paul for his injuries – were points in Boucher’s favor when crafting this new sentence.

Shepard wasn’t satisfied and is considering an appeal to get Boucher more time in prison.

While we wholeheartedly agree that Paul has suffered both physically and mentally from this unwarranted attacks and deserved to be compensated financially and to see his attacker do some time we believe that Leitman got the ruling right and that Shepard needs to let the ruling stand and not appeal it.

Shepard said a lesser sentence wouldn’t be adequate to deter future assaults.

We believe that Boucher has learned his lesson from his criminal actions against Paul and won’t commit any further acts against him.

We also believe that Boucher has paid the price already. He’s sold his home in Rivergreen, a very posh, gated neighborhood in Bowling Green where Paul and his family live, he’s already served 30 days in jail, has a massive civil judgment against him and he will be serving eight months in prison and six months home confinement once released from prison if Shepard doesn’t appeal Leitman’s ruling.

After all of this time and court proceeding after court proceeding it appears that Shepard is simply being vindictive toward Boucher.

We don’t for a second believe that Paul is pushing for more time behind the scenes, but we do believe that no public interest is being served and that it is time to accept the sentence Leitman handed down and move on.