A Montana man has been charged with assaulting a 13-year-old boy who refused to remove his hat during the national anthem. Now, the suspect’s attorney says his client attacked the boy because he was doing what Donald Trump told him to do.
Attorney Lance Jasper is attempting to seek a mental health evaluation for this client Curt Brockway, who claims he attacked the child because he’d become so heightened about the current climate the country is in that he struck the boy for not removing his hat. Brockway claims he was just following Trump’s orders.
“His commander in chief is telling people that if they kneel, they should be fired, or if they burn a flag, they should be punished,” Jasper said. Jasper added that Brockway “certainly didn’t understand it was a crime.” Jasper plans to use Brockway’s 2000 vehicle crash as their defense for mental illness.
Prosecutors formally charged Brockway with assault on a minor, a felony that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence and a $50,000 fine upon conviction. However, Brockway is also a registered violent offender after being convicted of a 2010 charge of assault with a weapon.
