WSU teaching assistant who assaulted student for wearing Trump hat gets jail time

A former Washington State University teaching assistant who drew national attention after he and another WSU associate attacked a student wearing a Donald Trump hat was sentenced Thursday to one week in jail and one year of probation.

Patrick M. Mahoney, 34, pleaded guilty Thursday to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault in Whitman County District Court in Pullman before Judge John Hart handed down the sentence recommended by the prosecution.

“The court feels the state’s recommendation is not just reasonable, but perhaps less severe than I may have thought before they made it,” Hart said.

Gerald W. Hoff, 24, was also facing a fourth-degree assault charge, but the Moscow-Pullman Daily News reported his case was resolved last month with Hoff avoiding jail time.

The assault charge for the defendants stems from the night of Feb. 28, when Mahoney ripped 25-year-old Jay Sani’s red “Trump 2024 TAKE AMERICA BACK” hat from his head and tossed it into the road outside The Coug, a popular college student bar just off campus, according to surveillance footage and a Pullman Police Department report.

Sani, a junior electrical engineering student, then slung his bag of food toward Mahoney, and Mahoney and Hoff took Sani to the ground, each delivering a punch, according to the footage.

Sani, who is also president of the WSU College Republicans, said the attack happened when he was walking back to Valhalla Bar and Grill, a block away from The Coug, after he realized the food he ordered from the restaurant was wrong.

Mahoney admitted to police he hit Sani in the face, and Hoff said he struck Sani in the leg, according to interviews with the suspects recorded on police body camera footage. The defendants then left the scene on foot.

Sani told officers Mahoney slammed his head onto the ground.

“Some people might find it offensive, but it’s 2025, man,” Sani told officers. “It’s just a hat.”

Sani said he did not interact with Mahoney in the moments prior to walking by each other on the sidewalk. Sani casually knew Mahoney, saying he and Mahoney were part of opposing political groups on campus, the police report says.

Mahoney and Hoff confirmed Sani’s account that Mahoney grabbed and threw Sani’s Trump hat and told Sani to go get it, according to body cam footage. Mahoney said he didn’t want to fight, according to documents, but that Sani did and “got what was coming to him.”

“You wanna wear the hat, hey, there’s gonna be a price to pay,” Mahoney told police in reports.

Hoff and Mahoney were arrested after their interviews on Main Street and taken to the police department, from where they were released within hours.

Mahoney, a WSU graduate student, was “relieved of all teaching responsibilities,” and Hoff, a “staff member,” was terminated by the university, according to an email earlier this year from WSU.

Hoff told police he was a research assistant at WSU.

Sani told the court Thursday that on paper, the assault might sound small, but the implications are “much bigger than it seems.”

“It’s about the treatment and fairness of discussions regardless of what your beliefs are,” he said. He asked Hart to impose the maximum punishment of one year in jail.

Sani told The Spokesman-Review after the court hearing the day in court was “emotional” for him and he had to go to class Thursday afternoon. He said the judge’s sentence was about what he expected, but he disagrees with it.

Mahoney’s attorney, Sandra Lockett, asked for Hart to impose credit for time served for the hours he spent in the police holding facility that night or for community service in lieu of jail time.

Mahoney, originally from Ohio, has two children and has been in Pullman for about four years, Lockett said. He is studying to obtain his Ph.D. in WSU’s School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs and wants to teach in higher education.

Lockett said Mahoney received several threats and harassing phone calls after the assault.

“What is not being spoken out loud is this is very political,” Lockett said. “That’s what happened here.”

Mahoney told Hart he should have acted differently that night and he was not trying to fight Sani.

“It was an impulsive decision I made in a two-second window that I shouldn’t have made,” he said.

Hart called the assault “a concerning set of circumstances.”

He said colleges are a place where people can engage in healthy debate and exchange ideas that are often different from their own. As a former educator with aspirations to be a college professor, Mahoney is obligated to facilitate the exchange of ideas and perspectives, and protect people with different perspectives than himself, Hart said.

He said he understood Mahoney’s regret in making a poor, spontaneous decision motivated by Sani’s opposing view.

“Nonetheless, it was an unprovoked act of violence,” Hart said.

He acknowledged Sani threw food at Mahoney, but “you escalated the physical attack, and that’s concerning,” Hart said.

Mahoney, who has no criminal history, must arrange through the probation department when to start serving his jail time.

Hart also ordered Mahoney to pay $30 to Sani and more than $560 in restitution to the Washington State Crime Victims Compensation Program. Part of Mahoney’s probation includes completing a mental health evaluation, including for anger management, and any recommended treatment.

Sani echoed Hart’s statements about college campuses being a place for expressing different ideas. Sani said he will forever be affected by the assault.

“Impacts that I endured will always stay with me, unfortunately,” Sani told The Spokesman-Review.