A
San Diego police
officer who was convicted of domestic battery involving his ex-girlfriend was sentenced Friday to three years of probation.
Seth Tate
, 33, was arrested in March of last year and later charged in five separate incidents that allegedly occurred between Tate and the victim, who dated for a few months.
A San Diego jury convicted Tate in June of domestic battery, but acquitted him of two other battery counts, and hung on two other domestic violence counts.
Tate had been with the San Diego Police Department for nearly three years at the time of his arrest.
Since then, Tate “has been on administrative duties with no contact with the public, pending the outcome of the criminal investigation,” an SDPD spokesperson said Friday.
“Now that the criminal case has concluded, the department will move forward with its administrative process regarding Tate’s employment,” their statement continued.
At trial, Deputy District Attorney Carlos Campbell described Tate as “jealous,” “volatile” and “erratic” throughout the brief relationship. The prosecutor told jurors that Tate kicked the woman on one occasion and on others forcefully grabbed her by the arms, leaving bruises.
Tate’s defense attorney, Sean Jones, said most of the alleged incidents lacked corroborating witnesses, and argued that both his client and his ex- girlfriend were frequently physical with one another. He said Tate often restrained the woman to prevent her from physically attacking him.
But Campbell alleged the woman was “not the first person he had been physically violent with.” Both Tate’s ex-girlfriend and ex-fiancee testified in the trial.
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San Diego Superior Court Judge Joan Weber said their accounts of Tate’s behavior were “virtually identical in the details of the jealousy, the emotional and the physical abuse” despite both women being strangers to one another.
But Weber said she wouldn’t impose custody because the victim didn’t sustain serious physical injuries. Tate’s probation terms include 100 hours of volunteer work service and completion of a year-long domestic violence program.
