A counter-protester pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of battery for sucker-punching a participant in an “America First” rally backing President Trump in Laguna Beach.
The convicted attacker was immediately sentenced to a month in county jail.
A video of the attack led to the arrest and conviction.
Richard Daniel Losey, 20, of Lancaster, Ohio, was also sentenced Friday to three years of informal probation in Santa Ana, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
Laguna Beach police Sgt. Jim Cota said Losey sucker-punched a man who was “peacefully speaking” with others at the anti-illegal immigration rally Aug. 20 at Main Beach.
Losey left the area before police arrived, but the attack was caught on video and was circulated online, Cota said.
Losey was arrested Aug. 22 as he was trying to buy a bus ticket to Ohio after he requested transportation assistance to travel back there from the Laguna Beach Police Department, authorities said.
—City News Service