Pair Fined for Sex Act at Dodger Game

A Burbank couple who engaged in oral sex in the stands during a Dodgers game last summer was ordered Friday to buy 100 tickets to Dodgers games for charity and to attend an AIDS education class, according to the city attorney’s office.

Melvin Michael Hoffman, 53, and Regina Anne Chatien, 43, were told to serve 120 hours of community service or pay a $500 fine, said Deputy City Atty. Michael D. Schwartz, who handled the case. They were also placed on two years’ summary probation and ordered to stay away from Dodger Stadium while on probation, Schwartz said.

On Thursday, a jury of eight men and four women found the couple guilty of lewd conduct after deliberating for three hours at the end of the four-day trial, Schwartz said.

The jury rejected the couple’s claim that the incident had never occurred, and that the witnesses made up the story, Schwartz said.

An off-duty Simi Valley police officer and his wife were watching the Dodgers and the New York Mets on Aug. 29 at Dodger Stadium when they noticed Chatien performing fellatio on Hoffman while the Burbank couple’s children, who ranged in age from 8 to 14, sat nearby, Schwartz said.

“It’s unusual in that four children were in such close proximity, only a few seats away,” Schwartz said. “This is what made it particularly offensive to the witness.”

When the officer’s wife stood to stretch during the game, she noticed the couple engaging in oral sex, Schwartz said. She pointed it out to her husband, who then contacted an usher, who also observed the couple.

“He came over and said ‘Oh my God,’ and rubbed his eyes and took another look, then got his supervisor,” Schwartz said of the young usher who had been working there for only two weeks.

Dodger Stadium security took the couple into custody, and they were later booked for lewd conduct, Schwartz said.

The couple went on trial in February, and it ended in a mistrial, according to the city attorney’s office. Jurors in that trial asked the judge if they could see the site where the crime took place, and the judged denied it, Schwartz said.

This time, the jurors trekked to Dodger Stadium on Thursday afternoon to see for themselves where the act took place, Schwartz said.

“They stood where the off-duty officer and his wife were sitting and looked down where the couple was sitting, and it was pretty clear that you could see it if it was happening,” Schwartz said.