Prelim hearing date reset for ex-lawyer
A Solano County Superior Court Judge once again has rescheduled a preliminary hearing date in the felony child sex assault case against former Vacaville attorney James Glenn Haskell.
Judge John B. Ellis previously scheduled Haskell, 41, for the hearing Wednesday in Department 23, but a court-records search showed the defendant instead will return at 9 a.m. April 12 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.
Deputy District Attorney Shelly Moore told The Reporter the postponement was necessary to satisfy or complete “discovery,” the formal process of swapping information between prosecutors and defense lawyers about the witnesses and evidence they will present at trial.
The new court date follows a mid-September revelation that the case grew more complex not only with a motion to increase bail but also with Moore's filing several new serious felony charges.
Haskell, a former associate attorney with the Reynolds Law firm in Vacaville, reportedly now unemployed and living in Southern California, has sold his home in north Vacaville and remains out of custody after posting $240,000 bail in May. He is represented by Fairfield criminal defense attorney Thomas Maas.
Moore filed an amended criminal complaint Sept. 15, adding five more counts, four felony charges alleging sexual abuse and one misdemeanor charge alleging physical abuse of a young victim and three of the victim's siblings.
The new charges, based on an investigator's interview with one of the children, adds to the original 13 counts, 10 felonies and three misdemeanors. The initial felony allegations span sexual penetration by a foreign object while the minor victim was unconscious to corporal injury to a child to assault, including strangulation, likely to produce great bodily injury.
The five new charges include four counts of a lewd act on a child and one count of cruelty to a child by inflicting injury, crimes that allegedly occurred between October 2018 and October 2019, according to the amended complaint.
Moore's revised complaint also indicated the children were “particularly vulnerable” and alleged that the manner in which the crime was carried out “indicates planning, sophistication, or professionalism”: Haskell “took advantage of a position of trust or confidence to commit the offense”; and the allegations “constitute additional aggravating factors.”
In court 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 the morning proceeding.
Court records show that Haskell was arrested by Solano County Sheriff's deputies on a warrant issued May 3.
He posted $170,000 bail on May 4, but court records also show that he was arrested again the next day when he posted additional bail of $70,000, bringing the total to $240,000.
On May 4, Haskell also was subject to a criminal protective order, prohibiting him from having any contact with four youths listed in the order.
The Solano County District Attorney's Office filed its complaint May 3. The following day at arraignment, Haskell pleaded not guilty to all counts, denying all enhancements and the allegations, court documents indicate.