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Daughter Of LAPD Sergeant Who Tried To Cover Up Fatal Hit-And-Run Gets 2-Year Prison Sentence
The 24-year-old daughter of an LAPD sergeant was sentenced to two years in state prison today for fatally hitting a cyclist in Gardena, fleeing the scene, and attempting to cover up the incident.Vanessa Marie Yanez, 23, pleaded no contest on August 6 to perjury, leaving the scene of an accident, and vehicular manslaughter. Before her plea, she was looking at up to six years in prison.
Yanez struck 60-year-old U.S. Postal Service worker, Jesse Dotson, Jr., as he bicycling to work around 9:50 p.m. on June 26, 2013. Yanez left him lying in the street and then drove away. She went to meet a friend at a club in Huntington Park and reported her car stolen the next day.
Dotson was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, but died three days later from his injuries, which included severe head trauma.
Authorities soon connected the dots though when a Huntington Park police officer called Gardena police after seeing a report on the hit and run, and found Yanez's car close to the club. She was arrested in July 2013.
It hasn't been determined if Yanez's father, LAPD Sgt. Arturo Yanez knew about the crash or helped his daughter with her attempted coverup.
At the sentencing, Dotson’s sister, Annette Dotson Woodard said: “You left my brother for dead. All along, you knew you hit a human being"
One of Dotson's six children, Alyssa Dotson, didn't feel the two-year-sentence was enough. “It’s just unjust to me,” she told KNBC. “I don’t feel like justice has really been served for my father, knowing all (that) he has brought to this world.”
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