James Otis, father of former Marlborough student, Ginger Otis ’18, sledgehammered Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 26.  After turning himself in, he was arrested on Thursday and released on a $20,000 bail.

On the morning of the protest, Otis dressed up as a construction worker and placed a fake construction scene around Trump’s star. He then proceeded to strike the star repeatedly with a sledgehammer. In a video he released, Otis stated that his goal was to retrieve the letters and the emblem from the star to sell them to raise money for Trump’s sexual assault victims. Otis was unable to keep the letters intact once he began attacking the star.

His daughter, Ginger, explained that she had no idea what her father was planning to do.

“He went to dinner with my mom beforehand just to check in as they do every so often. He said, ‘I’m going to be doing a nonviolent action tonight that you’re not going to like. I want you to know that I’m okay, and I’m not going crazy’…Low and behold, the next morning, we saw it,” Otis said.

Although Ginger Otis expressed that she would not have the courage to do this type of civil action herself, she said she is proud of her dad for standing up for his beliefs.

“Would I do it? No. Do I believe that it was right for him to do it? I don’t know. I’m a strong believer in saying what you believe in and not being afraid to express what you believe in. I do think oftentimes that going to jail is too big of an action, but when I say that to my dad, he says, ‘Well when you go to jail, that’s what brings in the news, and that’s what brings in the awareness,’” Otis said.