| For Immediate Release Case # 04NF3856
November 18, 2008 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
OFF-DUTY POLICE OFFICER FACES TRIAL FOR FRACTURING MAN’S SKULL BY THROWING HIM
DOWN STAIRS AT ANAHEIM BASEBALL GAME
SANTA ANA – An off-duty police officer from central California faces trial tomorrow for throwing a man down cement stairs and fracturing his skull at a baseball play-off game. David Myles Hackman, 36, Los Banos, is charged with one felony count of battery causing serious bodily injury and faces a maximum of three years in prison if convicted. Opening statements are scheduled to begin tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008, in Department C-39, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana. The time is to be determined.
On Oct. 6, 2004, Anaheim Angels fans Daniel S. and his brother, Chris S., were at Angel Stadium for the baseball play-off game against the Boston Red Sox. After the end of the game, Daniel S. and Chris S. were exiting toward the stairs. Just before turning onto the stairs, Chris S. tapped Hackman, a Red Sox fan, on the head with an inflatable “thunder stick.” Hackman, an off-duty San Benito Deputy Sheriff, is accused of becoming angry and mistakenly believing that Daniel S. had been the one to tap him.
Hackman is accused of following Daniel S. up the stairs, grabbing him by the back of the shirt with one hand and by the throat with the other, and throwing him backwards down the cement steps. Hackman is accused of then running down toward the injured victim, who was lying on the ground, and kicking him in the leg. The defendant is accused of fleeing the scene but was later detained by stadium security. Daniel S. suffered skull and vertebrae injuries and was treated at UCI Medical Center.
Deputy District Attorney Israel Claustro of the Special Prosecutions Unit is prosecuting this case.
###