A federal agent accused of stalking his ex in Key West enters a plea and leaves jail
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent held in Florida Keys jail without bond since early June after prosecutors accused him of violating a restraining order was released Wednesday after pleading no contest to battery and disorderly conduct.
His attorney said his client, 38-year-old Scott Hatfield, took the plea because his life was potentially in danger in Monroe County jail “at which he likely placed some of its current residents.”
Pleading “no contest” means accepting the charges but not admitting guilt.
“It was a safety issue for him as a law enforcement officer,” his West Palm Beach-based attorney, Daniel Lewin, said in a statement sent to the Miami Herald/FLKeysnews.com. “The resolution serves as proof Mr. Hatfield is not some stalker who violates court ordered injunctions, and therefore should not have been in jail in the first place.”
Sixteenth Judicial Circuit Judge Mark Wilson sentenced Hatfield to one year of probation, community service and anger management classes, both Lewin and the State Attorney’s Office confirmed.
Customs and Border Protection issued a statement saying Hatfield is “in a leave status pending the outcome of an investigation.”
Agency spokesman Alan Regalado said Hatfield is assigned to the Miami and Tampa field office.
Prosecutors had charged Hatfield with domestic battery and stalking, but later amended the charging document to simple battery and disorderly conduct.
“The stalking charge was dismissed, and the second case where he was arrested for violating an injunction was dismissed,” Lewin said.
The accusations
Hatfield was first arrested on May 31. Key West police say he pushed his ex romantic partner as she stood outside of the Body Zone gym on North Roosevelt Boulevard. Police say she was trying to get in her car to drive away, but he held the door open so she couldn’t close it.
Two construction workers who witnessed the incident yelled at Hatfield to leave her alone, according to his arrest report.
One of the construction workers backed up the woman’s account when interviewed by police, according to the report.
Hatfield told police he did push the woman, but he said he was trying to stop her from kicking him. Officers then arrested him on one count of misdemeanor battery. He bonded out of jail that same day, according to Monroe County Sheriff’s Office records.
According to the arrest report, the woman showed officers screen shots from her cellphone that showed 11 missed calls from Hatfield two days earlier. She also showed officers screen shots of a text she sent to him telling him to stop texting her, “and Hatfield continued to text her eight more times,” Officer Randy Perez wrote in his report.
The woman told officers “she feared Hatfield” because he showed up at her house “unannounced” in his Customs uniform and she told him to leave, the report states.
Days later, the woman called police again saying Hatfield called her while she was at work. She didn’t have a physical copy of the court order prohibiting him from contacting her, but told officers she could get the document, according to a June 5 arrest report.
Officer Samuel Adorno said in his report that he gave the woman a ride to the county clerk’s office on Whitehead Street where they obtained the order, which states that Hatfield is to have no physical contact with the woman, nor call, text, email or fax her. Police arrested Hatfield the next day, and he was released hours later after posting a $25,000 bond.
The State Attorney’s Office officially charged Hatfield with misdemeanor battery and stalking a day later.
A judge then agreed with prosecutors motion to revoke his bond because they said that while the woman and Key West police officer exited the clerk’s office three days earlier, Hatfield was there parked in his car, violating the court order to stay away from her.
He had been in jail ever since.
