L.A. County sheriff’s deputy convicted of battering girlfriend

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy was convicted Tuesday of battering and threatening his former girlfriend on Christmas Day last year after she confronted him about another woman.

Mark Eric Hibner, 44, was convicted of two counts of corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant and three counts of criminal threats, according to Orange County Superior Court online records.

The department began processing the paperwork Tuesday to fire Hibner, spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

“As of today,” he told The Times, “the termination begins forthwith.”

Whitmore said Hibner was relieved of duty with pay on Jan. 1 and relieved of duty without pay on March 25.

Hibner, of Anaheim, got into an argument with his former girlfriend on Christmas after she discovered a “sexually suggestive voicemail from another woman on the defendant’s cellphone,” according to prosecutors.

The victim then contacted the woman, who confirmed that she had been having a sexual relationship with the deputy, prosecutors said.

Hibner, who has been with the department for more than 20 years, was accused of escalating the argument by grabbing the victim’s hair and spitting and throwing a lighted cigarette at her while also punching her in the chest, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said he then pushed her onto the bed, straddled her, pinned her down with his knees on her shoulders and covered her mouth with his hand. He is also accused of repeatedly threatening to kill her.

The assaults continued the next day, prosecutors said. After waking the victim and dragging her to the living room by her hair, Hibner began choking her with his forearm across her throat, according to prosecutors.

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robert.lopez@latimes.com