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Former Blount County Magistrate Dustin Hatcher has been sentenced to 12 years of supervised probation on one count of sexual exploitation of a minor.

During a sentencing hearing this morning, Sevier County Circuit Court Judge Rex Henry Ogle extended the four years maximum sentence that Hatcher had accepted in a plea agreement, according to Special Prosecutor Al Schmutzer Jr.

The charge against Hatcher stemmed from an incident that happened on or about Nov. 30, 2006, at the Blount County Justice Center. According to the complaint report, Hatcher, 26, called a 17-year-old girl into his office and coerced her into putting on lingerie and took pictures of her, including her bare breasts.

Hatcher will be eligible for judicial deferral at the end of the probation. By the terms of the plea agreement, Hatcher previously waived his right to appeal the sentencing.

“(Ogle) says as a judge he can extend that to the actual maximum of the crime itself —up to 12 years,” Schmutzer said. “Since there is no appeal, everybody is going to have to live with it. The victim’s mother seem to be pleased with the outcome. It gives the boy an opportunity to get it off his record down the line, but it’s not going to be three or four years. It’s going to be 12 years from now.”

According to Schmutzer, Hatcher must wear an electronic tracking ankle bracelet for five months of the sentence. He cannot own or possess a firearm, take alcohol or drugs or contact the victim or her family.

Schmutzer said he was opposed to giving Hatcher the option of deferral.

“This changes it by stretching it to 12 years,” Schmutzer said. “I think that’s a good compromise.”

On June 3, Hatcher pleaded guilty to the charge. If he eventually receives judicial deferral, it will remove the conviction from his record, but, in the interim, he will have to register with the state as a sex offender.

A civil suit filed against Hatcher and his father, Blount County Circuit Court Clerk Tom Hatcher, Blount County and the clerk’s office, was settled by the county on Jan. 10, 2007, for $45,000.

Hatcher resigned from his post as magistrate -- a person who signs arrest warrants, approves some search warrants and sets bonds -- on Dec. 2, 2006.