LAPD sergeant’s daughter gets prison for concealing fatal hit-and-run

A Los Angeles police sergeant’s daughter was sentenced to two years in prison Thursday for trying to cover up a hit-and-run collision that killed a cyclist in Gardena.

Vanessa Marie Yanez’s sentencing comes more than a month after she pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for hitting 60-year-old cyclist Jesse Dotson Jr. She also entered the same plea for leaving the scene of an accident and perjury -- both of which are felonies, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Yanez was driving east on El Segundo Boulevard in Gardena on June 26 last year, when she struck Dotson and fled the scene, police said. The collision occurred a few blocks from Yanez’s home.

The next morning, she reported her vehicle stolen to the Huntington Park Police Department.

A Huntington Park police officer, however, saw news reports of the collision and notified Gardena police about Yanez’s possible connection, officials said.

Dotson, a father and U.S. Postal Service worker, died of his injuries three days after the collision.

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