It’s the kind of feel-good news story we need today.
Austin Michael Clay, 24, pled “no contest” to charges of felony vandalism after destroying President Trump’s star on the Hollywood all of Fame last summer. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he was sentenced to ONE DAY in jail, three years of probation and 20 days of “community labor” – and also ordered to pay $9,404.46 to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Not exactly nothing, but still a MUCH lighter sentence than we were expecting given the current state of Trump’s America.
As Mic points out, Clay wasn’t the first person to destroy Trump’s star.
In 2017, 53-year-old James Lambert Otis was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay both the Hollywood Historic Trust and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce after he destroyed the star with a pickax and a sledgehammer in 2016.
In a video taken of Otis — in which he’s dressed as a construction worker destroying the star — he says he was doing it because he was “terribly upset” that Trump was a “poster child for sexual violence.”
After Clay vandalized the star in July, Otis told the Hollywood Reporter that he wanted to help Clay pay for his legal battle. Which gets me a little teary-eyed. Vandals helping vandals when times get tough.
(Top photo: Avalon Red)