Former Vacaville attorney James Glenn Haskell, on trial for child sex assaults, denied he edited “characters letters” written by friends and associates after his arrest two years ago.
During cross-examination Wednesday, his third successive day on the witness stand in Solano County Superior Court, Haskell, 42, told Deputy District Attorney Shelly Moore that he “offered feedback” for at least two letters written on his behalf.
In one letter, written by Desire Dominique, a former employee at Reynolds Law, the Vacaville firm where Haskell formerly worked, he referred to himself as “a pillar of the community.”
Haskell — bearded and clad in a light gray sweater over a white shirt and tie and dark trousers — said he did not recall the self-characterization.
But Moore, who spent the morning and afternoon sessions repeatedly alluding to previous courtroom testimony, reminded him that Dominque had testified those were Haskell’s words, not hers.
He faces 16 counts, misdemanors and felonies, including sexual assault, alleged crimes that occurred between October 2018 and up until early February 2022, when his four adopted children, three girls and a boy, were removed from his Vacaville home.
Additionally, allegations filed later in the case in September 2022 included four felony counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object while the victim, the oldest of three daughters, was unaware. Among the other counts are two felony charges for inflicting injury on a child. (The Reporter typically does not identify victims of sexual abuse or sexual assault.)
Haskell, who remains out of custody on bail, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Upon further questioning during the afternoon session in Department 25, Haskell — a Georgetown University Law Center graduate fomerly active in the Rotary, Chamber of Commerce and a volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America in Vacaville — told Moore he did not recall telling Dominique during a secretly recorded “pretext call” that he “did not have a typical father-daughter relationship” with the oldest of three girls, whom he is alledged to have sexually assaulted.
Haskell described his relationship with the oldest daughter as being “good buddies,” and Moore quickly interjected, “inappropriate buddies.”
At one point, Moore said Dominique was “concerned about what was going on” at the Haskell home, a conversation Haskell and Dominique had at the Reynolds firm.
With her questions continuing to touch on prior courtroom testimony, Moore asked him he if recalled Dominique and family friends Scott and Kristin McKenzie of Vacaville testifying that they witnessed his calling his adopted son “stupid.”
“It’s not true,” said Haskell.
However, he admitted to using a leather belt to occasionally punish his son and the second-oldest daughter, but denied allegations of choking them and forcing them to sleep on a bathroom floor without warm clothing, blankets or a towel, the latter action as punishment for bed-wetting.
Moore got Haskell to admit he had taken an anger management class, which, he said, was part of a parenting class attended after the children were removed from his home.
“Do you recall Desire testifying that you need help with your anger?” the prosecutor asked. “And it’s true, correct?”
“It’s not true,” replied Haskell, who, Moore noted, adopted the four children, after they were in foster care with Haskell and wife Emily, on Aug. 9, 2019.
Moore asked him if, during parenting classes, he was told not to use physical punishment with the children.
Earlier in the day, when her cross-examination began, Moore immediately asked Haskell if he inserted his fingers into the oldest daughter’s vagin*.
“Never once,” he replied.
But Moore, relentless with her line of questioning, reminded him that the daughter testified under oath that he had done so and also “touched her under her underwear.”
Haskell testified that he did not necessarily treat the oldest daughter better than the other three children.
Yet Moore pressed on, saying the oldest daughter “got more privileges” and also bought her underwear at Victoria’s Secret, an American intimate apparel retailer, accompanying her to the store, which Haskell denied.
Throughout the day, Moore often used photos to support allegations that the oldest daughter can be seen lying atop Haskell.
At other times, Moore asked Haskell if, at various times, he rubbed her back, her thighs, settled his hand on her buttocks “in front of other people” at social gatherings, walked into her bedroom while she was changing clothes, commented on her “curvy figure,” and was, as a witness testified, “always hugging her.” He either denied the alleged actions or did not recall them.
On the Reynolds Law website before the information was taken down, Haskell was deemed a certified specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law, authorized to advise on business formation matters, partnerships, nonprofits, corporations, drafting and reviewing contracts, wills, trusts, and durable powers of attorney. His clients included ranchers and farmers, local teachers, law enforcement officers, real estate developers and agents, manufacturers, professionals and retirees.
He was raised in California but also lived in Alaska, Guadalajara, Mexico, and Washington, D.C. Before attending law school, Haskell worked at the U.S. Senate and at his grandfather’s cattle and grain exporting business in Southern California.
While attending the California Western School of Law in San Diego, where he graduated in 2009, he worked at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, serving as a judicial extern, or researcher and writer, for Judge Anthony J. Battaglia and at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
While volunteering for the Boys Scouts of America, Haskell served as a Scoutmaster and commissioner. Besides his memberships in Rotary and the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce, he was a member of Will C. Wood’s Pep Squad and the Play 4 All Park, among many other nonprofits.
And for a time, Haskell served as a bishop — in other faiths, the equivalent of a minister, priest, rabbi or imam — in a Vacaville ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called the Mormon church.
Moore will resume her cross-examination at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, the 19th day of the trial, in Department 25 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.
Haskell’s attorney, well-known Fairfield criminal defense attorney Thomas Maas, has taken what is generally regarded in legal circles as a risky move by allowing his client to testify and face cross-examination.
It remains unclear when Moore and Maas will rest their cases, when the judge will begin jury instructions, followed by closing arguments and jury deliberations.
If found guilty at trial, Haskell faces two life sentences and will be required to register as a sex offender.
