Last child abuse charge against Bay Area attorney dismissed, but federal civil case continues
The oldest child in the case, now 20 and legally an adult, is suing the county for placing them in the Haskell's Vacaville home and has hired the San Francisco-based personal injury law firm of Walkup, Melodia, Kelly and Schoenberger to represent her and her siblings.
Former Vacaville attorney James Glenn Haskell, acquitted on June 13 of all but one allegation in a child sex assault and abuse trial, had the final count dismissed earlier this week in Solano County Superior Court.
However, the oldest of his four former adopted children, on behalf of herself and the other three, two girls and a boy, is suing Solano County, Haskell and wife Emily in a federal civil case that is being heard in a Sacramento court.
County court records show that the District Attorney’s Office decided to dismiss Count 10, injury to a child, during a Monday morning proceeding in Department 25 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.
Vallejo criminal defense attorney Daniel J. Russo, appearing on behalf of defense attorney Thomas M. Maas, represented Haskell. Deputy DA Edward W. Lester appeared on behalf of Deputy DA Shelly Moore, who led the prosecution.
Judge Janice M. Williams, who presided over the two-month trial, returned Haskell’s passport, exonerated his bail, and ended his pretrial services contract.
During the trial, among the 18 allegations leveled against Haskell, 42, a former attorney with the Reynolds Law firm in Vacaville, were four counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object while the victim (a minor at the time) was sleeping and four counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14. The alleged crimes occurred between October 2018 and up until early February 2022, when his four adopted children were removed from his home in Vacaville, and he was arrested some weeks later. (The Reporter typically does not identify victims of sexual assault.)
The oldest child in the case, now 20 and legally an adult, is suing the county for placing them in the Haskell’s Vacaville home and has hired the San Francisco-based personal injury law firm of Walkup, Melodia, Kelly and Schoenberger to represent her and her siblings.
She contends the county adoption process was rushed and that the four children, all minors at that time, suffered extensive trauma while living with the Haskells.
The oldest child is suing the Haskells for abuse and cruelty she and her siblings endured, and notably alleging Emily, 41 — a former vice principal at K.I. Jones Elementary in Fairfield, later a resource teacher at Padan Elementary in Vacaville, and now a flight attendant based out of Las Vegas — failed to protect them as a state-mandated child abuse reporter. The three minor children are today 16, 13 and 10 years old and living in other households, The Reporter has learned.
Federal court records show the case, classified as a civil rights one, was filed Aug. 16, 2023, and the oldest child has asked for a jury trial in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Eastern District of California in Sacramento.
A Sacramento-based attorney, Serena M. Warner, represents the county. The Haskells are represented by an attorney named Douglas C. Smith, court records show.
The federal trial is scheduled to begin on May 12, in Senior Judge John A. Mendez’s courtroom.
At one point during the Superior Court trial, evidence indicated Haskell called himself, in a letter, “a pillar of the community.”
He is a Georgetown University Law Center graduate formerly active in the Rotary, Chamber of Commerce and a volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America in Vacaville.
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.
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.
A few weeks after the Solano County Superior Court trial, Sarah McGuire, sister of Emily Haskell, who, with her husband Nathaniel, has adopted two of the Haskells’ former children, wrote in a statement to The Reporter:
“On behalf of the children and their family, we are saddened that justice wasn’t served. We believe there was more than sufficient evidence for a conviction, and we want to thank Deputy District Attorney Shelly Moore and Deputy Danny Schilling for the countless hours of work they have poured into this case advocating and seeking justice for the children.”
She added: “We are sickened that James and Emily Haskell were able to adopt innocent children from foster care only to add to their trauma through abuse and cruelty. We are relieved that the children are safe and out of the Haskell home, and because of this, they are thriving and healing. They know that there are countless members of the Vacaville community and beyond who believe and love them. They are grateful for all of the support and prayers said on their behalf.”