Posted on 06/14/2007 7:27:05 PM PDT by girlangler
By SUSAN SHARP sharp@lafollettepress.com
Elk Valley resident Scotty Hatfield isn’t sorry for trying to kill a man.
Hatfield’s only regret is he didn’t succeed that December 2005 night when he felt a moral obligation to take the law into his own hands. H atfield recently was tried by a jury of his peers and found guilty of reckless aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.
The original indictment charged him with three counts of aggravated assault and one count of felony reckless endangerment.
Jurors ultimately chose to convict him on the lesser charges.
Scotty Hatfield never denied the charges. Sitting in court and at an interview days after the trial concluded, the thin dark-haired man said he had good reason for committing those crimes. Hatfield was seeking retribution against a man who allegedly harmed one of his children.
On May 21, Criminal Court Judge Shayne Sexton sentenced Hatfield to three years in prison.
Before Sexton handed down the sentence, he described the case as "troubling in a lot of different ways.” The judge characterized Hatfield’s actions that night as “an act of vigilantism.”
Scotty Hatfield is not facing prison because of a barroom brawl or a fight over property.
The father of three was convicted for endangering the man who he had just learned allegedly molested his 11-year-old daughter. Because two other people were in the car when Hatfield chose to unleash his rage, he faced additional charges for endangering their safety.
As Scotty Hatfield sat wearing a shirt that read “World’s Greatest Dad,” regret for those actions seemed to be the furthest thing from his mind.
“I have admitted to everything,” he said. “I’ve got no remorse.”
The memory of how he and wife Carolyn learned their daughter allegedly had been violated still is fresh in their minds. Anguish crosses both of their faces as they begin the story.
His voice slightly quivering, Hatfield begins to describe the night they learned of their daughter's alleged rape. Carolyn Hatfield waits for tears to subside before she speaks.
While the accusations are troubling, the relationships involved in the case compound the couple's pain.
In 2002, Scotty and his brother Ronald married sisters, Carolyn and Amy, respectively.
With these unions came stepchildren for both men. But Scotty Hatfield does not like that reference when he talks about his wife’s two daughters and son. To him, those three children are his.
His brother Ronald Hatfield also became a stepfather when he married Amy — she had a daughter and a son.
On a night in December 2005, Carolyn and Scotty’s daughter told them through tears she allegedly had been raped.
Scotty Hatfield said his daughter accused Danny Ditty - her first cousin who also is the son of her aunt Amy - of assaulting her.
In June 2006, a Campbell County Grand Jury indicted Ditty for the rape of Scotty Hatfield’s daughter. Ditty is scheduled to stand trial in August, according to his attorney Tim Webb.
Attempts to contact Ditty through his attorney were not successful. Webb said Ditty currently is out of the state while awaiting trial.
"I would rather not comment," Webb said when asked about the case. "There is a large jury pool out there and I don't want to prejudice anyone." At the moment of his daughter's revelation, Scotty Hatfield became outraged.
“I went and got my gun,” he said talking about his .38 caliber Smith and Wesson. “I was going to find him.” Driving along the curves of Highway 297 in Elk Valley, Scotty Hatfield passed a car being driven by his sister–in-law Amy Hatfield. Ditty was in the backseat. Scotty Hatfield said the two cars stopped in a church parking lot.
Jumping from his car, Scotty Hatfield’s pistol fired by accident, he said.
That would be the only shot the gun would discharge that evening, according to Scotty Hatfield. However, that issue was a point of disagreement between witnesses who testified at Scotty Hatfield's trial.
The weapon had been damaged in a fire, and Scotty Hatfield said he still regrets taking that particular gun.
Hatfield admits he wishes he had taken a different weapon because he intended to kill Ditty.
His next move was to pull open the car door and squarely point the gun at Ditty.
“I never said a word at all,” he recalled. When he tried to fire, the gun jammed, Scotty Hatfield said.
Seizing the opportunity, Amy Hatfield quickly accelerated the vehicle and fled from the parking lot, according to court records.
The warrant later used to arrest Scotty Hatfield said he followed them in his vehicle while shooting at the car containing Ditty, Amy Hatfield and her minor daughter.
Scotty Hatfield denied this accusation and held up his left hand as proof.
On that hand, his index and ringer fingers are missing. Weeks before he learned of his daughter’s alleged attack, a skill saw severed those fingers, according to Hatfield.
At the time he went looking for Ditty, his arm was in a bandage and splint, Hatfield said. Driving and firing a gun simultaneously would not have been possible, he claims.
While Ditty escaped, Scotty Hatfield sought solace by going to a friend’s home. When he returned home, unexpected guests were waiting on him.
“Three hours later, a SWAT team and 13 cops showed up to pick me up,” Scotty Hatfield said. “I remember there were a whole lot of guns pointed at me.”
His arrest led to nine days behind bars.
As Scotty Hatfield sat in a concrete cell, his wife was learning of more disturbing allegations.
Their other two children came forward to accuse Ditty of raping them as well, Carolyn Hatfield said. Another cousin also said Ditty raped her, according to court records.
“This all hit the fan together,” Scotty Hatfield said. Six months later, a grand jury returned a five-count indictment on Ditty for sexually assaulting four juvenile relatives.
Ditty also was a minor when the crimes were alleged to have occurred. His case was transferred out of the juvenile system in March 2006.
Court records indicate the transfer to adult court took place after General Sessions Judge Joe Ayers reviewed the evidence against Ditty.
The court order further noted Ditty’s transfer into the adult court system would be in the best interest of the community.
Eighteen months after these accusations and just weeks after Scotty Hatfield has been given a prison sentence, the couple is attempting to come to grips with circumstances.
Carolyn Hatfield is trying to help the children cope as she works to rebuild her own emotional state. She also plans to buy a gun and learn to use it, she said. Scotty Hatfield is trying to understand how the justice system already has disposed of his case while Ditty remains free.
Even though Ditty has not been found guilty of the alleged crimes, Scotty Hatfield firmly believes his actions that evening were justified. During the sentencing phase of Scotty Hatfield’s trial, prosecutors took a different view.
“He said at trial that he just snapped,” Assistant District Attorney Scarlet Ellis said.
While she conceded Scotty Hatfield “got very bad news that day," Ellis also told the court he “intended to kill him (Ditty).”
After reminding the court of the facts in the case, Ellis sat down and said she would defer to the judge on punishment.
Charles Herman, who represented Hatfield, asked for leniency.
“I asked the court to consider the provocation,” he said referring to Ditty's alleged crimes. As his attorney plead his case, Scotty Hatfield nodded in agreement each time the alleged sexual assault was mentioned.
Amy Hatfield submitted a statement to the court explaining how Scotty Hatfield's assault on her family had affected her life and those of her children — Ditty and a juvenile daughter.
In it, she paints her brother–in-law as a lawless man prone to violence.
“Please show him no mercy for he has none for anyone else,” Amy Hatfield wrote.
Scotty Hatfield later dismissed her allegations.
He admits to “being rowdy” at times and accumulating some assault and DUI charges in his life. But he says other allegations leveled by Amy Hatfield are false. Before the case went to trial, Scotty Hatfield was offered a plea. He was not interested.
“I believed a jury was my strong point. I thought they would understand,” he said. Scotty Hatfield described himself as a defense attorney’s worst nightmare.
“I admitted everything. They tried to get me to say I was sorry and I’m not. My lawyer just dropped his head,” Scotty Hatfield said.
An imminent prison sentence could make some angry at the justice system, the prosecutors and the judge. This is not Hatfield’s case.
In fact, he said “would shake (the judge's) hand” if he met him on the street. He also refers to Herman and Ellis as if they are old friends.
The hope of an appeal still lingers, but Hatfield is not placing any bets on avoiding jail time.
“I am looking for the worst but hoping for the best,” he said. “But I believe I’ll do fine (in prison).”
His concerns are reserved for his children.
They have undergone counseling, but fears remain. On the day Scotty Hatfield heard his verdict, he went home and took his son to ride ATVs.
When the two stopped by a creek, Scotty Hatfield broke the news to the boy.
As he recalls their conversation, Hatfield turns his head. The tears he chokes back are audible.
When the boy was told his father could go to prison, fear flashed in his son’s eyes, Scotty Hatfield said.
“Will Danny be out before you Daddy?” Scotty Hatfield said was his son’s only response. Even though he is going to prison while the man accused of assaulting his children has yet to stand trial,
Scotty Hatfield has never doubted his decision.
“I done what I thought was right,” he said.
"Only mistake Scotty Hatfield made was failing to shoot that rapist to kill . . . I'd have shot and killed him."
Ping
If someone raped one of my close family, they would die. That’s justice.
If someone as much as laid a finger with ill intent upon my daughter it would be the last thing they ever did.
Ditty dood it, diddly?
Frankly, I’m afraid I’d happily spend the rest of my life in prison, if someone EVER harmed my grandchildren. I’m a widow, I’d be fine.
I would’ve like to have been on that jury. He would have got a parade.
Ditty needs to spend the rest of his life in jail.
Revolvers don’t jam. Bad choice of weapon.
Report to re-education NOW, Citizens...
“Underage” my foot. “Underage” means fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen, not eleven. Eleven is child molestation. The headline makes it sound like it was a guy hitting on his teenage girlfriend.
Poor guy needed a jury of FReepers.
Bring enough gun.
Not when I read stories like this.
He’d win an award, not jail time.
As much as one sympathizes with this father, vigilantism is illegal and should be punished. For instance, there were two other people in the car with the rapist, including a minor child. If the gun in misfiring had hit her instead, would he still deserve a metal?
Why?
Now if a trial had been held and an obvious gross miscarriage of justice had occurred (e.g., acquittal on a technicality), that might have been the time for Scott Hatfield to resort to vigilante action. It would also have allowed him to plan his revenge much more carefully. The fact that he used a damaged gun and endangered other people shows that he either wasn’t thinking very clearly, or else he truly was as dim a bulb as his actions suggest.
Scott Hatfield’s prison sentence sounds perfectly reasonable, based on the description of events in this article.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.