Former LA County Deputy Sentenced To Year In Prison For Assaulting Girlfriend
SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — A former Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy was sentenced Friday for repeatedly assaulting a woman he was in a relationship with when she discovered he was cheating on her.
Mark Eric Hibner, 44, of Anaheim, was sentenced to one year in jail and five years of formal probation, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Hibner was found guilty by a jury on Oct. 22, 2013 of two felony counts of domestic battery with corporal injury and three felony counts of criminal threats.
Hibner was a 22-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department when he got into an argument with a woman he had been romantically involved with for several years. The couple argued on Christmas Day 2012 when she discovered a sexually suggestive voicemail from another woman on his cell phone.
Over the next few weeks, Hibner repeatedly assaulted his girlfriend, spit on her, dragged her around by her hair, threw a lit cigarette at her and threatened to kill her. He also threatened to kill a woman from a previous relationship, with whom he had a child, if she appeared at a court hearing for a protective order for his current girlfriend.
At Hibner's sentencing Friday, his former girlfriend submitted a written impact statement letter to the court. In part, it read:
"Mark kept me in a bubble. He isolated me from family and friends. I was not allowed to see my family. Mark would keep me from them. If I did not do what he said, he told me they would be in danger because he was the law and they were trash in his eyes.
"I am ruined emotionally and financially. He wore me down to nothing and I would not want to see this to happen to anyone else. He abused his power as an officer of the law."
