Christopher Hays will surrender Friday to serve one year sentence
SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A former San Diego police officer sentenced to one year in jail for groping and illegally detaining four women while on duty is scheduled to surrender Friday at the downtown courthouse to begin serving his time behind bars.
Christopher Hays, 30, pleaded guilty Aug. 22 to false imprisonment and misdemeanor counts of assault and battery under the color of authority by a peace officer. The sentence handed down by Judge Charles Rogers last week also includes three years probation.
Three women testified in April that they were groped and forced to perform inappropriate acts after being contacted and searched by the four-year SDPD veteran, who resigned the day after he was charged in February.
A fourth woman also said Hays groped her after her arrest for shoplifting, according to SDPD Detective Cory Gilmore.
“Please protect me. He (the defendant) has to know what he did was wrong,” Jane Doe 1 wrote in a letter to the judge.
Another woman, identified as Jane Doe 4, told the judge she has trouble sleeping in her own bed after Hays followed her to her apartment and had her expose her breasts and told her to touch his groin.
“He’s a disgrace to the uniform,” she said.
Deputy District Attorney Annette Irving said Hays was banking on the notion that his victims would never tell what he did to them.
Defense attorney Kerry Armstrong said Hays — a former Marine who served in Iraq — did a lot of good and was “not going around trying to victimize people.”
“He’s the kind of guy who will give you the shirt off his back,” Armstrong said. “He’ll do anything to help people.”
At his sentencing, Hays apologized to the victims and his family for any pain he caused, saying “It’s not something I’m very proud of.”