Tennessee Baby Machine Is A State Inmate

MAY 21--The Tennessee man who has impregnated a large portion of Knoxville’s female population--and reportedly fathered 30 children in the process--is a convicted felon whose babymaking ability has been hampered for the past three years due to his state prison incarceration.

The story of Desmond Hatchett’s fertility--and his related inability to pay child support--returned to the news last week when a Memphis TV station reported that the 33-year-old “was back in court this week” seeking the state’s help with his support payments. The Los Angeles Times noted that Hatchett is “struggling to make ends meet on his minimum-wage job.”

Which would likely come as a surprise to Hatchett, who has been locked up for the last 33 months. Pictured above in a Tennessee Department of Correction photo, Hatchett was jailed after a judge revoked his probation in August 2009.

Hatchett had been sentenced to six years in prison for aggravated assault, but had the majority of that term suspended in lieu of “enhanced probation.” He quickly violated his probation terms by getting arrested for domestic violence, violating curfew, and lying about his whereabouts to his probation officer.

Now imprisoned in the Morgan County Correctional Complex, Hatchett’s sentence is scheduled to expire in November 2014. He has lost two parole bids, most recently in December 2011. And, like other Tennessee inmates, he is not allowed conjugal visits.

Hatchett has a “very long and serious criminal history” that includes “multiple assaults, multiple thefts, aggravated assault, multiple evading arrests, and several driving assaults,” according to a probation violation report. He has also been collared on narcotics charges and has shown “contempt for the rules of probation and of the court.” In fact, his rap sheet runs 14 pages.

Which apparently impresses the ladies.

When Hatchett first made headlines in May 2009, he was reported to have fathered 21 children with 11 different women (Tonnisha Hollis; Kayla Reed; Zenobia Alexander; Delishia Brown; Ashley Badgett; Latisha Page; Tanya Ray; Carmelita McDowell; Sierra Campbell; Nyesha Cooper; and Megan Cooper). At the time, he vowed “I’m done!” when asked if he planned to add to his brood.

While Hatchett was jailed a few months later--and has been locked up since--he has purportedly fathered nine more children “in the last three years,” according to the Los Angeles Times, which followed up on an original TV report by WREG, the CBS affiliate in Memphis.

As noted by WREG anchor Claudia Barr, Hatchett “was back in court this week pleading with the state to help him pay his child support.” Tennessee, Barr said, already was taking half of Hatchett’s paycheck and dividing it up between the mothers of his children. Hatchett, Barr noted, has set a Knox County record by fathering 30 children.

WREG’s May 16 report--which went viral last week--concluded with the contention that “there is nothing the state can do to make him stop having more kids.” 

Except, of course, locking Hatchett up at a 65-acre prison in East Tennessee (pictured above) that can house nearly 2500 felons like him. (1 page)