More charges filed against former Bay Area attorney charged with child sex crimes

The child abuse case against former Vacaville attorney James Glenn Haskell has grown more complex in recent days, with the prosecutor filing several new serious felony charges and filing a motion to increase bail to $1.5 million.

Haskell, 40, who appeared in Division 23 Tuesday morning for the bail increase and to hold a preliminary hearing, Judge John B. Ellis, after consulting with the attorneys in the case, heard orders for him to return at 8: 30 hours. 12 for the bail motion and the new hearing at the Justice Center in Fairfield.

Ellis also referred the case to the Solano County Parole Board, which will issue a pre-trial services report, and ordered Haskell, formerly an associate attorney at the Reynolds law firm in Vacaville, to submit to an interview with a parole officer. .

Haskell, now unemployed and living in Southern California, has sold his home in northern Vacaville and remains in custody after paying initial bail totaling $240,000 in May. He is assisted by Fairfield criminal defense attorney Thomas Maas.

The latest developments in the case come after Deputy District Attorney Shelly L. Moore filed her amended criminal complaint on Sept. 15, which included five additional counts, four charges of sexual assault and one charge of physical abuse of a young victim, along with three siblings of the victim.

The new charges, based on an interview with one of the children, add to the original 13 counts, 10 felonies and three felonies. The initial charges of the crime included sexual penetration by a foreign object while the minor victim was unconscious from bodily harm to a child to assault likely to cause major bodily harm, including strangulation.

The five new charges include four counts of lewd act against a child and one count of cruelty to a child by inflicting injury, by “bodily assaulting the boy’s penis”, crimes allegedly committed between October 2018 and October. 2019, according to the wording in the amended complaint.

Moore’s revised complaint also indicated that the children were “particularly vulnerable” and claimed three things: 1) The manner in which the crime was carried out “indicates planning, sophistication or professionalism; 2) that Haskell “used a position of trust to commit the offence”; and 3) that the allegations “are additional aggravating factors.”

In court on Sept. 15, Haskell again pleaded not guilty to the new charges. If convicted at trial, he faces two life sentences, Moore told The Reporter after Tuesday morning’s proceedings.

In opposing the bail increase, filed Monday, Maas argued that Haskell cannot raise an additional $1.1 million in bail, saying the amount “is tantamount to denying bail,” and therefore an violation of the Eighth Amendment, a reference to excessive bail. Maas also claimed that the increased bail would violate the so-called “Humphrey Decision,” a state constitution right for a suspect to be released from pre-trial detention on bail, except in certain cases of capital crimes, violent or sexual crimes. and serious threats of violence.

In addition, Maas noted that Haskell, who has no criminal record, has been fired from the Reynolds firm, cannot get a job given the ongoing legal proceedings and has surrendered his passport to the court.

Maas suggested that the defendant has had no contact with the victims since he was arrested in May and incarcerated in Solano County.

Notably, Maas added in his application, one of the four children, the boy, was removed from temporary placement and allegedly committed sexual abuse against another minor, while during an interrogation he claimed that Haskell “pulled his penis.” and kicked”. Another child claimed that Haskell “repeatedly stroked her thigh years ago.”

Court records show that Haskell—a graduate of Brigham Young University, a member of the California and District of Columbia Bars and an Eagle Scout, according to biographical information on the Reynolds office website prior to its removal—was arrested by Solano County Sheriff deputies on an order issued May 3.

He paid $170,000 bail on May 4, but court records also show that he appeared to have been arrested again on May 5, when he paid an additional $70,000 bail, bringing the total to $240,000.

On May 4, Haskell was also subject to a criminal protection order, for not having contact with four youths named in the warrant.

The Solano County District Attorney’s Office filed his complaint on May 3 and the following day bringing Haskell – a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center who was once active with the Vacaville Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, and a volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America – Pled not guilty to all counts, denied all improvements and charges, court documents show.

On the Reynolds Law website before it was announced that he had been arrested, Haskell was considered a certified specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law, qualified to advise on matters of corporate incorporation, partnerships, nonprofits, corporations, the drafting and reviewing contracts, wills, trusts and durable powers of attorney. His clients, according to the website, included ranchers and ranchers, local teachers, law enforcement officers, real estate developers and agents, manufacturers, professionals and retirees.