Judge Gives Former Fire Captain 4 Years in Prison for Hit-Run DUI After He's Drunk on Cleaner in Jail

An Orange County Superior Court judge Friday morning revoked the probation of a former Long Beach fire captain and gave him the full four year prison sentence for his conviction of the drunken hit and run of a Seal Beach cyclist last year.

John Hines was allegedly getting drunk off hand sanitizer at Huntington Beach’s pay-to-stay city jail, where he was serving time in lieu of state prison. His sentence was the doing of the judge in his case, not the Orange County District Attorney's Office that prosecuted the case and believed prison time was appropriate. Hines was a Long Beach Fire Captain until shortly after his arrest, when he was either fired or quit.

The full story will be coming from court soon.

Earlier story before court today:

The judge will have the option of revoking John David Hines’ probation, sending him to state prison for his full 4-year and 4-month prison sentence. In November, that sentence was suspended on the condition that he serves a year in a local jail and completes five years of probation.

Hines, 38, was transferred back to the Orange County Jail in January after officers at the Huntington Beach jail allegedly found him intoxicated.

His suspended sentence had taken into account the fact that Hines had no criminal record and had undergone treatment for alcohol addiction. It was granted even though prosecutor Andrew Katz argued for a harsher punishment because Hines was three times the legal limit when he struck a rider on Westminster Avenue and sped away as witnesses chased him, screaming for him to stop.

The reduced sentence also came over the objections of his victim Jeffrey Gordon, who told the court he may never fully recover and was upset that Hines "may suffer little or no consequences for his actions."

Hines had been in the Huntington Beach jail for less than a month when he staggered and appeared to be intoxicated, Huntington Beach Police Lt. Mike Freeman said in January.