Richard Hatch

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Richard "Rich" Hatch (born April 8, 1961) is the $1,000,000 winner of the first American Survivor series.

Professional life

Prior to his Survivor appearance, Hatch was a corporate trainer from Newport, Rhode Island. He spent five years in the United States Army - two of them at the United States Military Academy (would have been Class of 1986) of which he dropped out after two years.^[2] He is also a licensed real estate agent, and has also worked as a car salesman and a bartender.

Throughout the duration of Survivor, Hatch claimed his profession as a corporate trainer aided him in his ability to deal with other people.^{[citation needed]}

Survivor: Borneo

Hatch competed in Survivor: Borneo, the first edition of the show in the United States. He competed with the Tagi tribe, and quickly aligned with former Navy SEAL Rudy Boesch.

Once Sonja Christopher and Stacey Stillman were eliminated from the Tagi tribe, Hatch and Boesch formed a voting alliance with the two remaining female members of the tribe, Kelly Wiglesworth and Susan Hawk, who also had a strong bond. This left Dirk Been and Sean Kenniff as the only two to vote off. Dirk was voted off, and then Joel Klug was voted off of the Pagong tribe. A merge followed the elimination of Klug, and thus the tribes merged into Rattana at five members each. Sean Kenniff, the one remaining member of Tagi (not in the alliance), voted using an alphabet strategy. The tight four voted for Gretchen Cordy, while the other six votes were all different. Greg Buis was next to go as he received votes from the five former Tagi members as well as Jenna Lewis (who received the other three votes), and was next to go.

As the alliance continued to target the opposing tribe, Pagong, Jenna Lewis and Gervase Peterson were eliminated next.

Due to the rift in the relationship between Susan Hawk and Kelly Wiglesworth, Kelly Wiglesworth quickly became the new target of the now 3-way alliance between Hawk, Boesch and Hatch himself. Wiglesworth had opted out of the alliance, a move that Susan considered cowardly and simply a way to show off to the jury, thinking this assured her of winning. But Wiglesworth won immunity, and Colleen Haskell was voted off instead. When Wiglesworth won immunity again, the 3-way alliance voted out Sean Kenniff.

In the final four, Wiglesworth managed to win immunity once again, ensuring that one of the alliance would be voted out. In a 2-2 tie (the first tie in Survivor history), Hatch and Hawk were both in danger of elimination. But when asked to vote again, Wiglesworth opted to eliminate Hawk, cementing the end of their friendship. At the Final Three immunity challenge, Hatch chose to eliminate himself early, trusting both Wiglesworth and Boesch to take him to the Final Two regardless. And when Wiglesworth won immunity, she did exactly that and voted out Rudy, making him the final member of the jury.

In the Final 2, Hatch was accused of being way too cocky and overall an evil person. But it was Hawk's comments that really struck home. Comparing Hatch to a snake, she claimed that she must vote for him as nature intended, because the snake must eat the rat, who was Wiglesworth. Clearly shaken by this statement, Wiglesworth would not acknowledge Hawk after the show, opting not to hug her.

In the end, Hatch became the first ever Sole Survivor in a 4-3 vote, gaining the votes of Rudy Boesch, Susan Hawk, Sean Kenniff, and Greg Buis. Buis asked Wiglesworth and Hatch to pick a number between one and ten. Many speculate that if Hatch had picked the wrong number Wiglesworth would have won. But Buis later stated in interviews Hatch had his vote 100 percent and if Wiglesworth had picked the right number he would have simply changed the number.^{[citation needed]}

While the voting alliance was criticized very heavily during the game (some even saw it as cheating), this would become the standard for every Survivor season to come.

Survivor: All-Stars

Hatch's appearance on Survivor: All-Stars was a very short but eventful one. As part of the Mogo Mogo tribe, they lost one member in Episode 3 when Survivor: The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca quit to be with her dying mother. When the Saboga tribe was dissolved in Episode 5, Mogo Mogo gained two extra members and when they lost immunity, they immediately targeted Hatch. Although Hatch got wind of his impending doom and put together a counter strategy, his plans were foiled and he was voted out.

But his stay was not without its share of controversy. The Mogo Mogo tribe encouraged Hatch's nudity in challenges, and in the immunity challenge in episode 5, he rubbed himself against opposing tribe member and fellow Survivor: Borneo alliance member Susan Hawk. While seemingly a joke at first, Hawk took it very badly and opted to quit the game as a result in episode 6, the episode after Hatch was eliminated.

In 2008, Survivor host Jeff Probst mentioned in an interview that Hatch smuggled a canister of matches onto Survivor: All-Stars "in a little container up his bum." The immediate result was that the Mogo Mogo tribe was able to get fire early on in the game. Since this incident all contestants are now strip searched.^[3]

Other appearances

• Hatch appeared on an all-reality show edition of the short lived game show Dog Eat Dog. He lost his challenge and was placed in the show's "dog pound".

• Hatch appeared in 2002 in an episode of The Weakest Link that was composed entirely of Survivor: Season 1 contestants. Richard was the first eliminated.

• In August 2005, Hatch was a contestant of Battle of the Network Reality Stars in which his team lost in the finals.

• He also appeared on the Australian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (hosted by Eddie McGuire). He didn't do the math properly (11 x 12) and got his fourth question wrong, becoming the first person in Australian Millionaire history to go home with $0.

He had a cameo as a patient in the Becker episode "One Wong Move" where Ted Danson's character received him as a patient, discussing the bizarre eating habits of the people on the television show, and mentioning that he didn't mind if he had to take his clothes off.

He appeared as himself (and naked) in the 2006 film Another Gay Movie.

Tax evasion conviction and imprisonment

On January 19, 2005, the United States Attorney's Office in Providence, Rhode Island, reported that Hatch had failed to report the $1,010,000 he had received from the Survivor show on his Federal income tax returns (the additional $10,000 was paid for his appearance at the live Survivor reunion after the finale). Hatch also allegedly failed to report approximately $321,000 he received that year for appearances on radio station WQSX-FM in Boston. Prosecutors stated Hatch would be charged with filing a false tax return. An agreement was arranged whereby Hatch was offered a lenient sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. Hatch withdrew from the arrangement. He subsequently said he was basing his defense on his belief (which he now acknowledges was not correct) that CBS had arranged to pay the taxes before awarding him the money.

Hatch was indicted on September 8, 2005. The 10-count indictment included all of the above charges, plus additional charges that he failed to report rental income from properties he owned, failed to declare an automobile he won on Survivor, used money as personal income that was paid to a charity organization he had set up, and had knowingly submitted false statements in the above transactions.^[4]

On January 25, 2006 a jury in Providence, Rhode Island found Hatch guilty of tax evasion. The verdict stated that Hatch did not pay taxes either on his Survivor winnings, or on $327,000 he earned as co-host of a Boston radio show and $28,000 in rent on property he owned. He was acquitted of seven bank, mail and wire fraud charges.

Hatch faced up to 13 years in prison and a fine of $600,000. On May 16, 2006 he was sentenced to 51 months in prison, plus three years of supervised release after serving his sentence. He began serving his sentence at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts. In July, 2006 he was moved for a short period of time to the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.^[5] before being placed at the minimum-security Federal Correctional Institution in Morgantown, West Virginia on August 2, 2006. After sentencing, his lawyer Michael Minns added: "It's bad for Hatch, who is an outdoor person."^{[citation needed]}

On December 7, 2006, Hatch filed an appeal of his conviction in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, MA. He claims that the trial judge prevented him from arguing that he had made a deal with CBS whereby CBS would pay his taxes on his winnings and he stated that CBS cheated on Survivor by providing food to other contestants.^[6]

On February 1, 2008, Hatch's conviction was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.^[7] The Court stated that Hatch was given several opportunities to testify about the alleged deal, but he never took the opportunity. In a 52-page decision, the Court ruled, "The failure of Hatch to present any evidence of such conversations when invited by the court strongly suggested that no actual promises were made, and no such 'deal' actually existed. It was not the court's right, much less duty, to put words in Hatch's mouth."^[8]

On May 23, 2008, Hatch petitioned the US Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, asking that court to review the First Circuit decision.^[9][10] The Court denied the writ without comment on October 6, 2008.^[11]

Hatch was released on Thursday, May 14, 2009 to serve a period of home confinement.^[1][12][13]

On July 7, 2009, Hatch filed a petition with the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island for a seven week leave from his home confinement to appear in the 10th Anniversary Survivor 20 starting in August, 2009 in Samoa. The request was denied by the court.^[14]

On August 18, 2009, he was re-arrested and taken into federal custody for granting two supposedly unauthorized interviews (prisoners under house arrest are required to get permission from the federal Bureau of Prisons before any media contact),^[15] one with Access Hollywood and another with Rhode Island NBC affiliate WJAR.^[16] He had been allowed by the Bureau of Prisons to be interviewed^[17] by Today earlier in the day.^[16] On September 9, 2009, Hatch's private and ACLU lawyers petitioned for habeas corpus so he might return home for the remainder of his sentence, on the grounds that prison media-access rules apply only in prison, and that permissions are negotiated between the media and the prison so their limitations did not bind Hatch.^[18]

Hatch contends that he was prosecuted because of his openly homosexual lifestyle.^[15] Former U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, whose office had the responsibility for Hatch's prosecution, responded that Hatch was "delusional."^[15]

On October 16, 2009, Hatch was released from prison after completing his federal sentence.^[19]

References

External links

• Richard Hatch at the Internet Movie Database
• Hatch's criminal indictment on The Smoking Gun