CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A former worker at a New Hampshire drug recovery center who once played for the NFL was sentenced Thursday to three years of probation after pleading guilty to transporting fentanyl.
“I take full responsibility for the criminal actions I engaged in,” Jeffrey Hatch, who now lives in Georgia, said via video during his federal court sentencing.
Lawyers on both sides agreed to a sentence of probation for Hatch, noting that he has been sober for over four years and has been helping others recovering from drug addiction.
Hatch played offensive tackle for the New York Giants and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before leaving his career in 2005. He later became chief business development officer at Granite Recovery Centers in Salem.
Hatch became addicted to pain killers while playing football, and later, to fentanyl and heroin following knee replacement surgery in 2014, according to a sentencing memorandum submitted by his lawyer.
In a plea agreement reached in July 2019, Hatch admitted that in 2017, he used his cellphone to arrange to pick up 1,500 grams of fentanyl from a Massachusetts-based trafficker on behalf of another trafficker in Manchester.
On July 2, 2019, then-Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to visit Granite Recovery, but the trip was canceled at the last minute; no reason was provided.
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