A former
Pajaro Valley teacher currently on Probation for possessing Child Pornography arrested AGAIN
for…..Possessing Child Pornography.
Peter
Hatch, 63 years old, was arrested in 2009 for possessing “boxes and boxes” of Child
Pornography by our good friends at the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office put together a great
case that resulted in a conviction of Mr. Hatch. As a result, Mr. Hatch was given
probation.
Fast-forward
to November 2013. Mr. Hatch went to a
local office store where he paid to have data transferred onto a DVD. Alert store employees realized the data was actually
inappropriate pictures of children. In
fact, the store employees even went so far as to search Mr. Hatch’s name on the
Internet, where they found news stories of his previous arrest. They contacted us here at Santa Cruz Police
Department.
Officer
Ben Whaley took the initial report and collected the data images on November 9th. Ben completed some good follow up work and passed
the case on to Detective Pawlak.
On
Tuesday November 12th, our Detectives went to Mr. Hatch’s home in
the 2900 block of Freedom Blvd. and conducted
a search subsequent to his probation terms.
Our detectives found more Child Pornography, photography equipment, and
binoculars. When Mr. Hatch arrived
home, we greeted him with a pair of handcuffs.
In
a subsequent interview, Mr. Hatch admitted to knowing he was in violation of
his probation, and his proclivity for Child Pornography. Mr. Hatch admitted to taking inappropriate photos
of children at local beaches. In addition
to finding photographs taken by Mr. Hatch, Detectives found DVD’s containing
Child pornography hidden in books in his home.
When questioned about this, Mr. Hatch admitted to having similar DVD’s
confiscated during his previous arrest, but he was compelled to revisit the
Websites and repurchase the DVD’s.
Mr.
Hatch was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail for violating his probation. We are exploring the possibility of the Feds
taking his case. If that isn’t possible,
we will seek to add the fresh charges locally.
While he is only on one term of probation, this case qualifies him to be
on our “Probation All Stars” list.
Who
knows what will happen to Mr. Hatch on this case; but should you spot him out
and about with a camera or binoculars on the beach…….Call the Police, because he’s not bird watching!
