Officer convicted of felony battery

An off-duty police officer from Central California was convicted Wednesday of throwing a man down concrete stairs and fracturing his skull at a baseball game.

A jury found David Myles Hackman, 36, a San Benito County sheriff’s deputy from Los Banos, guilty of one felony count of battery causing serious bodily injury. He faces a maximum of three years in prison at his Jan. 9 sentencing.

Hackman, a Red Sox fan, was leaving Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Oct. 6, 2004, when Angels fan Christopher Slama tapped him on the head with an inflatable thunder stick, prosecutors said.

Hackman mistakenly thought that Slama’s brother Daniel had tapped him, and followed Daniel Slama up a set of stairs. Hackman grabbed Slama’s throat with one hand and the back of his shirt with the other, threw him backward down the stadium steps and ran down to kick Daniel in the leg as he lay on the ground. The victim suffered a fractured skull and a spinal injury.

-- Tony Barboza