Ex-Deputy Sentenced for Assaulting Wife

A Ventura County sheriff’s deputy who pleaded guilty last month to two misdemeanor counts of assaulting his wife at the couple’s Thousand Oaks home was sentenced Friday to three years’ probation and 90 days counseling.

The conviction means Gary Hughes, an 18-year member of the Sheriff’s Department, can never work as a law enforcement officer again, said his attorney, Kevin DeNoce. Under federal and state law, a person convicted of a domestic-violence offense loses his or her right to carry a firearm.

“Gary Hughes paid the ultimate price before he even walked into court,” DeNoce said.

Hughes was placed on administrative leave after his October indictment on five felony counts, including battery, false imprisonment, making a terrorist threat and exhibiting a weapon in a threatening manner.

Hughes denied the charges, but later entered a guilty plea when prosecutors reduced the charges to two misdemeanor counts.

Prosecutor Adam Pearlman said Hughes is paying an appropriate price. “That’s not a shame,” Pearlman said. “That needed to happen because he committed one of the crimes while on duty and one using his sheriff’s baton. . . . He violated the trust given to him as a sheriff’s deputy.”