Senator assaulted at home; acquaintance accused

A man has been arrested and charged with assaulting and injuring U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, authorities said Saturday.

Kentucky State Police said in a news release that Paul suffered a minor injury when 59-year-old Rene Boucher assaulted him at his Warren County home on Friday afternoon.

The release did not provide details of the assault or the nature of Paul’s injury. In a statement, Paul spokeswoman Kelsey Cooper said the Republican senator is “fine.” The statement said Paul was “blindsided” by the assault but she did not provide further details.

Boucher, of Bowling Green, is charged with fourth-degree assault with a minor injury, a misdemeanor. He is being held at Warren County’s jail on $5,000 bond. An automated phone system at the jail did not provide access to lawyer information for Boucher.

Kentucky State Police Master Trooper Jeremy Hodges said he could not release details of the assault because of security issues.

Hodges said that Boucher is an acquaintance of Paul, an ophthalmologist who was elected to the Senate in 2010.

Paul and Boucher live in the same gated community along Rivergreen Lane in Bowling Green, Ky., according to a person close to Paul who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of respect for the senator.

Boucher is an anesthesiologist and the inventor of the Therm-a-Vest, a cloth vest partially filled with rice and secured with Velcro straps that is designed to help with back pain, according to the Bowling Green Daily News

Rene Boucher

Rand Paul