Man sentenced for vandalizing Trump’s Hollywood star

A Los Angeles man was sentenced Tuesday for destroying President Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
James Lambert Otis, 53, pleaded no contest to one felony count of vandalism stemming from the incident last October, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Otis must pay $3,700 to the Hollywood Historic Trust and $700 to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. He must also serve three years of formal probation and 20 days of Caltrans work.
{mosads}Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star was destroyed by a sledgehammer-wielding Otis in an early-morning attack Oct. 26, 2016.
Otis reportedly dressed up as a construction worker, with his original plan being to auction off the star in New York City. The proceeds would purportedly have benefited the multiple women who accused Trump of sexual assault before Election Day.
Otis was arrested one day after his vandalism, and Trump’s star allegedly received “Secret Service-like protection” after its destruction.
Trump first received his marker along Hollywood Boulevard on Jan. 16, 2007, according to the attraction’s website.
The billionaire received the marker following his work on “The Apprentice,” a NBC reality television contest he hosted before becoming president.
Vandals repeatedly defaced Trump’s star before his White House win, with some marring it with a large yellow X in September 2015. A controversial street artist also targeted the star, erecting a miniature concrete “border wall” around it last July.
Defacements of the star were frequent enough that a petition to remove the marker was circulated last April.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce resisted the effort, insisting it had never revoked a previously awarded star.
“Once a star has been added to the Walk, it is considered a part of the historic fabric of the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” President Leron Gubler told CNN last April. “Because of this, we have never removed a star from the Walk.”
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