Gustavo Arellano: He admitted to punching a reporter. A judge wished him 'best of luck'

Dressed in a wrinkled blue suit and spotless black Vans, Tyler Laube glanced at me as he walked toward a courtroom on the ninth floor of the Ronald Reagan Federal Building in downtown Santa Ana.

The 27-year-old was there to hear his sentence after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor for repeatedly punching a reporter during a pro-Trump rally at Bolsa Chica State Beach in the spring of 2017.

I was there to hope against hope that Laube wouldn't get a break yet again.

The reporter he assaulted? Frank Tristan, who was covering the rally for OC Weekly, where I was then editor in chief. As Tristan was being beat up by someone else, Laube rushed him, grabbed him by the jacket and pummeled his head and face before a black-clad protester pepper-sprayed Laube.

The California State Park Police didn't arrest Laube, who was on probation for his role in an armed robbery in L.A. County. Nor did they detain any of his fellow associates in the , who