A California Supreme Court judge last week upheld Manhattan Beach officials’ decision to terminate former police officer Eric Eccles in March 2011 for his involvement as a passenger in an off-duty, hit-and-run collision.
In a seven-page ruling, the judge stated that “the weight of the evidence and legal precedent support the court’s finding that discharge was an appropriate penalty in light of the misconduct.”
This ruling upholds an arbitrator’s recommendation in April 2012 to deny Eccles’ appeal and uphold the termination, stating he was “discharged for just cause.”
The series of legal proceedings stems from a car accident that occurred on the evening of January 31, 2010. Eccles and two other off-duty officers, Richard Hatten and Kristopher Thompson, began drinking at Grunion’s Sports Bar in Manhattan Beach between 11:15 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. The three “ate and drank alcoholic beverages for approximately the next eight hours,” according to court documents.
At around 7 p.m., the three left the bar together in Hatten’s two-seater Corvette, with Hatten driving and the other two stacked in the passenger seat. Less than 250 feet from Grunion’s, “the Corvette rear-ended a fellow motorist at 26 miles per hour, without Officer Hatten ever applying the brakes, an accident that caused the Corvette’s airbags to deploy.”
After the collision, Hatten drove the vehicle to Dianthus Street where his Corvette died. Hatten told Eccles and Thompson that he would return to the scene on foot, and the two subsequently went to retrieve Thompson’s truck at Grunion’s.
According to court documents, Hatten never returned to the crash scene. Lt. Bryan Klatt, who was working as watch commander, received the hit-and-run call, and Officer Jeff Goodrich responded to the scene. Goodrich and Klatt did not file a report.
Eccles, along with Hatten, Thompson and Goodrich, was shortly put on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The findings prompted the District Attorney’s Office to file a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge against Hatten while absolving Eccles and Thompson due to lack of evidence that they “aided, abetted or encouraged Hatten’s actions in leaving the scene of an accident … that [they] acted as accomplices.”
Citing the same investigation, then-Chief Rob Uyeda and City Manager Dave Carmany found just cause to terminate the four officers and demote Klatt to an officer.
In a written statement to the Easy Reader, Eccles said he “couldn’t care less” about losing the hearing and instead wanted to clear the name of Officer Goodrich, who died of cancer in September 2011.
“While I would love to use this last opportunity to defend Thompson and myself once more,” he wrote, “I feel there is someone of greater significance who warrants the affirmative defense: Officer Jeff Goodrich. The MBPD, Rob Uyeda and Rich Hatten have had three and a half years to clear a good man’s name, yet have all failed to do so.”
Eccles further explained that Goodrich’s course of action following the accident was contingent on what was relayed to him by Hatten, who later admitted in an Internal Affairs interview that he had lied to Goodrich about the nature of the accident.
“The record will be set straight. Jeff Goodrich was not part of any cover-up or corruption and was never guilty of any unethical behavior,” Eccles wrote. “The only thing [he] was guilty of was trusting a fellow officer (Hatten) who took advantage of his faithful nature … He was misled.”
Eccles noted that Goodrich’s character was “assassinated so badly in the media, using only premature allegation and speculative theory provided by MBPD officials,” forcing his wife and two daughters to move out of the state after his death.
“The family was abandoned by the community they gave so much to and the undue disgrace became too much to bear … Jeff deserved to be remembered for so much more than this sensationalized incident, because of the incredible person he was to so many.”
Eccles said he is not yet sure whether he will file an appeal for the recent ruling.
