Elk Valley man facing jail time for ‘his act of vigilatism’

The Lafollette Press ^ | 6/15/07 | SUSAN SHARP

[girlangler]

Being of McCoy lineage, and a resident of the county where this happened, I'm ready to defend this man. Like my 80 year old Mom (maiden name McCoy) said when I read this to her ...

"Only mistake Scotty Hatfield made was failing to shoot that rapist to kill . . . I'd have shot and killed him."

[girlangler]

Ping

[glorgau]

If someone raped one of my close family, they would die. That’s justice.

[pissant]

If someone as much as laid a finger with ill intent upon my daughter it would be the last thing they ever did.

[gcruse]

Ditty dood it, diddly?

[Judith Anne]

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.

[Eagles6]

I would’ve like to have been on that jury. He would have got a parade.

[Dustbunny]

Shame the gun misfired.

Ditty needs to spend the rest of his life in jail.

[MaxMax]

Revolvers don’t jam. Bad choice of weapon.

[null and void]

Have you no faith in our legal system???

Report to re-education NOW, Citizens...

[Flash Bazbeaux]

“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.

[Politicalmom]

Poor guy needed a jury of FReepers.

[The KG9 Kid]

Bring enough gun.

[pissant]

Not when I read stories like this.

[pissant]

He’d win an award, not jail time.

[LWalk18]

Why does the title say that the rapist "walked", when he goes on trial in August? It's misleading to the reader.

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?

[null and void]

Why?

[Doe Eyes]

Would anyone have a problem if the father of the young woman that cried rape, killed those Duke Lacrosse players?

[WorkingClassFilth]

The judge characterized Hatfield’s actions that night as “an act of vigilantism.” Sorry, Judge. Your characterization is loaded with prejudice and ignorance. Vigilantism actually has a noble history for the most part. It arose (and arises) when government fails to do its job in administering justice to the evil doers in our midst. The fact that the perp walks in a heinous case of child molestation is a case in point. Hatfields intent to kill the man has moral justification. All that is lacking is legal justification which the law seems to have de facto granted to the perp. The day is coming...

[dpwiener]

As much as I’d like to have sympathy for Scott Hatfield, he should have waited for the legal system to give the accused a fair trial. The guy he tried to kill might not have been guilty. After all, even children sometimes make false accusations. Just because he believed his daughter didn’t necessarily make her rape claim true. That’s why we have judges and juries and forensic investigators, rather than rely on unproven charges.

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.