A Montana man charged with assaulting a 13-year-old boy who refused to remove his hat during the national anthem believed he was doing what President Donald Trump wanted him to do, his attorney said.
Attorney Lance Jasper told the Missoulian he will seek a mental health evaluation for Curt Brockway, a U.S. Army veteran who became caught up in the heightened animosity and rhetoric gripping the nation, and convinced himself that he was following the president’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.”
Brockway suffered a traumatic brain injury in a vehicle crash in 2000 that has affected his decision making, and Jasper said he plans to raise that in his client’s defense.
Jasper’s comments Wednesday came as 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.
A person who answered the phone at Jasper’s office Thursday said the attorney was unavailable for additional comment.
Brockway, 39, told a sheriff’s deputy that he asked the boy to remove his hat out of respect for the national anthem before the start of the county rodeo, Mineral County Attorney Ellen Donohue wrote in the document describing the attack.
The boy cursed at Brockway in response, and the man grabbed him by the throat, “lifted him into the air and slammed the boy into the ground,” Donohue wrote.
Prosecutors said the boy was airlifted to a hospital for a possible concussion and skull fracture. His condition was not immediately known.
Conduct during the playing of the national anthem has been an issue in recent years, with some NFL players kneeling to protest police brutality. Trump once called for NFL owners to fire players who kneel or engage in other acts of protest during the anthem.
“Trump never necessarily says go hurt somebody, but the message is absolutely clear,” Jasper said. “I am certain of the fact that (Brockway) was doing what he believed he was told to do, essentially, by the president. … Everyone should learn to dial it down a little bit, from the president to Mineral County.”
Brockway, who is charged with felony assault on a minor, is a registered violent offender after being convicted of a 2010 charge of assault with a weapon.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
Oh, please, the lawyer is as crazy as his client. Trump has never said, hinted, or given any indication that people who show contempt for the USA should be assaulted. What he did say is that they should be treated with contempt, that no decent person should want to associate with them, let alone hire them as celebrities. If it’s wrong to condemn Colin Kaepernick then it must be equally wrong to condemn David Duke or Richard Spencer; if condemning the anthem-kneelers is the same as inviting violence against them, then the same must be true for condemning white supremacists, or “homophobes” and “transphobes” and “islamophobes” and whomever else the left has turned into monsters.
The degenerate racist lying adulterer continues to throw gasoline on a smoldering fire, there are those who have and will act upon his rhetoric.
Trump has called openly for violence at some of his rallies, “punch him in the mouth”, “if you beat him up I’ll pay your legal bills”.
The degenerate racist lying adulterer RT continues his unhinged demented hysterical lying rants on this forum. You sound like a mad dog barking the same hate.
To millhose: Trump has mentioned “roughing up” dissenters at his rallies and referred to police mistreating suspects. It is not a stretch to suppose that Trump advocates assault on kids who leave their hats on when protocol requires removal. But, of course, Trump breaches protocol when he feels like it.
To MoisheInGevaltestok: You have slandered RT by calling him/her an adulterer. I don’t know RT, and I suspect you don’t know him/her either.