“International fugitive” and “child predator” Brad A. Hatter, as designated by the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), has been captured in Mexico after five years of evading law enforcement. The agency says he has been brought back to the United States to face justice.
In December 2005, Hatter, 58, was arrested in Gwinett County Georgia for attempting to meet a 9-year-old girl for sexual activity, according to law enforcement. He organized the encounter online and then went to the location where he was supposed to meet the girl. Instead, he met officers from the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office where he was taken into custody.
Two years later in May of 2007, he was convicted of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity and sentenced to 108 months in prison. Hatter was released in September 2017 and forced to register as a sex offender and report to a federal probation officer.
On Jan. 21, 2018, the USMS said Hatter stopped reporting to his probation officer, stopped registering as a sex offender, and went into hiding.
The USMS then began their exhaustive five-year hunt for Hatter, who they say had initially fled to the Philippines where he began working as a school teacher after which he went to Mexico.
It’s unclear if he had any victims.
Hatter was located with the help of Mexican authorities. On Dec. 3 after a brief pursuit by the USMS, he was apprehended by Mexican authorities.
Hatter was returned to the United States immediately on Dec. 4 and placed in detention.
“Since 2018, Mr. Hatter has been looking over his shoulder, knowing one day Deputy United States Marshals would find him,” the U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Georgia Thomas Brown said. “On Saturday December 3rd, that day arrived. The U.S. Marshals would not give up their hunt. Hatter is now back where he belongs, in the custody of the United States Government.”
The USMS is the primary federal agency charged with conducting fugitive investigations throughout the country. It regularly works in concert with other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to seek out and arrest violent fugitives and sex offenders.
The USMS has established task forces throughout the nation and professional relationships worldwide to facilitate the apprehension of fugitives.
