Bay Area Professor Charged with Assaulting 7 Conservatives with Bike Lock Gets Probation

A former Diablo Valley College professor who used a bike lock to assault seven Trump supporters at a free speech rally last August will only receive three years of probation as part of a plea deal.

Eric Clanton, a former philosophy professor at Diablo Valley College, will receive only a three-year probation for his assault on Trump supporters at a Berkeley Free Speech rally in August 2017. Clanton was captured on video smashing a Trump supporter’s head with a bike lock. His victim ultimately fell to the ground, covered in his own blood.

Court documents revealed that Clanton struck at least seven people in the head at the Berkeley free speech rally on April 15, 2017. One of his victims had a head laceration that required five staples to fix. Clanton was initially charged with four counts of felony assault.

During a search of Clanton’s home, investigators found documents that linked him to local Antifa groups. Investigators also found bike locks and clothing that were similar to the items used by the assailant in the assault video that was published online. Additional,y, cell phone tower data placed Clanton close to the location of the assaults on the date they took place.

Clanton entered into a plea agreement on Wednesday for a misdemeanor battery charge. All felony charges against Clanton were dismissed. A charge against Clanton for wearing a mask during the assault was also dropped as a result of the plea deal.

Currently, there is speculation on social media that the plea deal was made in exchange for information on Antifa members in the area, but there has been no official statement or information released to back up that claim.

Breitbart News covered Clanton’s story in August 2017 when it was revealed that a Bay area professor was behind the vicious attacks that took place in April 2017. In late December, Breitbart News ranked Clanton’s attacks as the second craziest campus story of the year. At the time that that list was published, Clanton had only been accused of carrying out the one attack that had been captured on camera.