SAN DIEGO — Former Deputy Richard Fischer who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting several women while on duty is returning to prison.
On September 26, an appellate court denied Fischer's appeal to remain out of prison after the county mistakenly granted him 956 days of pre-sentence custody credits that he didn't earn.
According to the appellate court ruling, Fischer was released from prison after the court approved to increase his time served credits from three days to 959 days.
When the state and the county realized the error, the parties went back to court to rectify the mistake and order Fischer back to prison. The judge agreed but Fischer appealed the decision, asking the judge to allow him to keep the 956 extra days. At the same time, the trial court judge allowed Fischer to remain free until the appeal was heard.
Fischer's freedom ended today with the appellate court ruling.
"We conclude that Fischer’s arguments lack merit. We accordingly affirm the trial court’s order that vacated the grant of an additional 956 days of pre-sentence custody credits and remanded Fischer to custody to serve out
the remainder of his local prison sentence," reads the September 26 ruling.
In 2018, Fischer was charged with 14 counts of having inappropriate contact with women while on duty. In 2019, Fischer was sentenced to 44 months in prison.
The appellate court did not agree with Fischer's arguments that sending him back would be akin to serving two sentences for the same crime.
"Fischer will not be serving a second term of incarceration; he will simply be completing his now-correctly-calculated local prison term," reads the ruling. "It is not fundamentally unjust to require Fischer to do so."
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