Former Manhattan Beach police officer Richard Hatten pleaded no contest in Torrance Superior Court on Tuesday to a misdemeanor count of failing to stop at the scene of a hit-and-run car accident about a year and a half ago, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Hatten, 36, was sentenced to three years on probation, 45 days of community labor for the California Department of Transportation and was fined $1,000, according to District Attorney’s office.
In March, the city of Manhattan Beach fired Hatten and two other police officers, and demoted a fourth in connection with the crash. Bryan Klatt, the watch commander on duty at the time of the crash, was demoted from the rank of lieutenant to officer.
Eric Eccles and Kristopher Thompson are the two former officers who were also let go. Hatten, Eccles and Thompson were off-duty at Grunion’s Sports Bar on Sepulveda Boulevard before they got into Hatten’s Corvette, which was involved in a crash with two other cars that night, sources said. The damaged Corvette was later found unattended parked at a nearby gas station.
After the incident, the three officers were placed on leave, as was Jeff Goodrich, the officer who responded to the scene. Goodrich allegedly did not take a report after the incident, sources said. Goodrich died in September of last year.
