hatch

A day after Survivor star and convicted tax cheat Richard Hatch was hauled back to jail from his home confinement in Newport, his attorney finally resolved the mystery of why federal authorities placed her client behind bars once more.

Law enforcement officials decided that the former reality TV star had engaged in one media interview too many.

It all started with an interview that aired Tuesday morning on NBC’s Today show, which the show says the U.S. Bureau of Prisons granted Hatch permission to do.

Hatch, who won $1 million on the first season of Survivor, was convicted in 2006 of tax evasion, served about 3½ years in prison, was released to a halfway house earlier this year and then to home confinement.

Hatch, who is openly gay, told co-host Matt Lauer he believes he would not have gone to prison if he were heterosexual. He said he believes the federal judge, Ernest C. Torres, was trying to discriminate against him, and he says he didn’t get a fair trial because Torres prohibited Hatch’s lawyer from polling the jury about their feelings on homosexuality.

That set off a series of media interviews that ended with Hatch’s arrest Tuesday afternoon. He was taken to the Barnstable County Correctional Facility in Bourne, Mass., where he remained Wednesday afternoon, according to U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley.

Former U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, whose Providence office prosecuted Hatch, lashed out at Hatch in interviews with both The Providence Journal and WPRO’s radio talk-show host John DePetro, saying the man is “delusional.”

Corrente’s comments on WPRO apparently angered Hatch, DePetro said Wednesday –– and prompted Hatch to call the station asking to go on air. DePetro said he doesn’t know if Hatch had been authorized to make that call, but his producer told him Hatch wanted to go live –– and he did, “blasting” Corrente, DePetro said.

“The Corrente comment is what pushed his button,” DePetro said. “I think he felt he had a right to respond to Corrente.”

On Wednesday, DePetro said a Hatch family member he would not name told the talk show host Tuesday afternoon it was the DePetro interview that got Hatch in trouble.

Reporting on Hatch’s arrest Wednesday morning, the Today show made no mention of the local media interviews Hatch conducted.

“It all happened after your interview aired,” a reporter on the Today show told Lauer as she described Hatch’s arrest.

Then Today aired footage Lauer said they had taped earlier but not aired, in which Hatch said he had permission to speak with Lauer and he was not jeopardizing himself by going on the show.

What was not clear is whether Hatch had permission for the interviews that followed, including one that aired on Access Hollywood after he was taken into custody Tuesday. Hatch also appeared on Channel 10, the local NBC affiliate.

Billingsley refused to say why Hatch is locked up, citing “privacy concerns.” She said failing to follow established policies for home confinement is one reason someone in federal custody could land back in jail. Hatch’s home confinement is part of his federal prison sentence, she said.

Billingsley said the Bureau of Prisons must approve any media interviews conducted by someone under home confinement such as Hatch, and each media outlet’s interview would be considered on a “case-by-case basis.” Once permission is granted for a single interview, though, Hatch would have been allowed “to speak freely,” she said.

Hatch’s lawyer, Cynthia Ribas, blamed her client’s arrest on an innocent miscommunication between Hatch and the Bureau of Prisons. She was informed by the Bureau of Prisons that when they granted her client permission to be interviewed by NBC she and Hatch understood it to mean interviews by the Today show, by the network’s affiliate, Channel 10, and its reporter Brian Crandall and by Access Hollywood.

“Their understanding was that it was only for the Today show,” she said.

Ribas, who had been present in Newport for the interview, said that when she returned to her office in Los Angeles she found a message from the Bureau of Prisons saying that Hatch had also violated his agreement by going on the DePetro show.

In Providence Wednesday, the chief U.S. probation officer here offered some insight on what’s next for Hatch. He’s entitled to a closed hearing at the Bourne facility within 72 hours of being locked up, according to Barry Weiner.

Hatch would fall under Weiner’s supervision once his federal prison sentence is complete. As of Wednesday, that sentence was slated to end Oct. 7, but that could change based on the results of the hearing, Weiner said.

Hatch’s options after the hearing are: a return to home confinement, a stay through Oct. 7 at the Bourne facility, a transfer to another federal facility to complete his sentence or an extension of that sentence because the October end date includes time waived for good behavior, Weiner said.

Billingsley would not say whether Hatch will have a hearing.

Hatch could now remain in jail or federal prison until Oct. 7, when his federal sentence is set to expire, or beyond if he loses time off for good behavior that he earned while imprisoned.

kbramson@projo.com