Local man pleads guilty to indecent exposure
A month after Jason C. Hatter was acquitted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Dunbar woman, he pleaded guilty to 19 counts of indecent exposure in three separate cases. One of the counts is related to his April trial, where jurors deadlocked on whether Hatter exposed himself to a 22-year-old woman, but found him not guilty of the most serious offenses lodged against him.
Hatter was charged with grabbing the woman along a roadway last May 28, forcing her to ride with him to a wooded area and then trying to force her to perform a sexual act. After the woman refused multiple times, police alleged Hatter took her from the area and dropped her off near her home.
Assistant District Attorney Phyllis A. Jin, who handled the plea, said prosecutors agreed to drop indecent assault and disorderly conduct charge in the two other cases.
In exchange for his pleas, Hatter, 23, of 192 Morrell Road in Dunbar, will receive a probationary term to be determined by Fayette County Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi.
The second case dealt with a similar allegation made by a 19-year-old woman who accepted a ride to work from Hatter last March 20. The woman told police she was walking in Uniontown to her job at the Uniontown Mall when Hatter, whom she thought she knew, offered her a ride.
The woman told police she realized she was mistaken about Hatter’s identity once she got in the car. Hatter, police charged, did not take the woman immediately to work, but drove around for a short time.
When he did arrive at the mall, police alleged he grabbed the woman and tried to solicit sexual acts from her. The woman refused and got out of Hatter’s red Ford Probe, said police.
In that case, police also charged Hatter with indecent assault, but that was dropped as part of the plea bargain.
The third case involves 17 counts of indecent exposure filed against Hatter after he exposed himself to a bus full of softball players and their bus driver. The team members, who ranged in age from 15 to 18, and the bus driver were parked near the Burger King in the lot of the Laurel Mall along Route 119 when Hatter exposed himself last May 7.
Capuzzi set a May 23 sentencing date for Hatter.