At the end of the trial, the lawyers portray Haskell with completely different facial features – The Vacaville Reporter

James G. Haskell, 42 (Solano County Sheriff’s Office)

Is former Vacaville attorney James Glenn Haskell a monster who “dehumanized” three of his four adopted children, sexually abused the eldest girl, and injured and humiliated the two younger ones?

Or is he the wrongly accused, almost saintly father described in numerous “character letters,” who tried to give his children a good life but is now the victim of “fantastic,” unreliable witness statements?

After a nine-week trial in Solano County Superior Court, the 12 jurors will give their answers Tuesday when the case is presented to them following the conclusion of closing arguments from the defense and the prosecutor’s rebuttal.

Haskell is accused of 17 counts, misdemeanors and felonies, including sexual assault, that allegedly occurred between October 2018 and February 2022, when his four adopted children, three girls and a boy, were taken from his Vacaville home.

In addition, the charges later filed in September 2022 included four counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object while the victim, the eldest of three daughters, was unaware of it. Other charges include two counts of assault on a child. (The reporter does not typically identify victims of sexual abuse or sexual assault.)

Haskell, 42, who was released on bail, pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Assistant District Attorney Shelly Moore began her closing argument by saying, “Closing arguments are not evidence,” and then called Haskell “the father of the year.” She described him as an articulate attorney and reminded jurors that he was a member of the Vacaville Rotary Club and a former bishop of a Mormon congregation in Vacaville, suggesting he was an above-the-record member of the Vacaville community.

However, she added that when he took the stand in his own defense, he was also someone who made self-serving, “unsubstantiated statements.”

Moore, in a calm and deliberate pace, asked the jury to apply the law in considering the facts of the case. She then defined “reasonable doubt” and said they did not have to “eliminate all possible doubts.”

She asked them to consider sources of evidence, including witness statements, audio recordings and photographs.

Moore then detailed the charges – two counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious (or sleeping) person “who could not defend himself because he was unconscious,” and sexual penetration of a minor under the age of 16 and a minor under the age of 18. He is also charged with several counts of assault and willful child abuse, and four counts of lewd and lascivious acts upon a child under the age of 14.

The assault charges include choking the second eldest daughter and son and “slamming a child’s head against a hard surface” on purpose. Moore added, however, that “no assault is required” for the charge.

She reported several days of testimony, including some of the children describing being forced to sleep on the cold bathroom floor as punishment. They also described being severely beaten with a belt and being pushed either onto the sidewalk of the driveway or onto the floor of their house.

Moore said the sexual touching and assault on the oldest girl “continued for two years,” and the injuries to the second oldest girl and second oldest boy did not stop until the abuse was reported to Solano County Sheriff’s Office officials on Feb. 3, 2022. A Solano County Child Protective Services worker concluded the children were not safe and moved them to another shelter that same day.

About four weeks later, Moore reminded jurors, the eldest girl confided to a family friend that she had been sexually abused while sleeping on a family couch. The family friend then reported the allegations to a sheriff’s detective.

“One person’s testimony can prove any fact,” Moore told jurors.

When asked whether a child could not remember precise details of an alleged crime or offense or made contradictory statements, she said that jurors could accept “any parts that are credible.”

Moore reminded jurors of testimony that said Haskell “chased” the boy around the house with a belt, hitting him in the face in a beating that left him so badly injured that he missed school. There were also details of Haskell allegedly pulling the boy’s hair and choking him. These are statements a child could not make up, she said.

Haskell’s method of punishment was to “isolate and belittle” the boy and the second oldest girl. “Power and control” are not normal parenting, Moore claimed.

As she spoke, Haskell, wearing a light gray sweater, shirt and tie over dark pants, listened sternly and took notes while sitting next to his attorney, well-known Fairfield criminal defense attorney Thomas Maas.

Perhaps the most shocking part of Moore’s argument was that she showed color photographs of the boy’s bruised buttocks after the belt beating, another photo of more than half a dozen bruises on his back, some old and yellowed, others freshly pink, and yet another photo showing a thin bruise about six feet long on one leg.

At one point, Maas objected, claiming that Moore had misrepresented the law, but Judge Janice M. Williams told him he could make his case in his closing argument.

Moore called Haskell’s claim on the witness stand that the boy and the second eldest daughter had engaged in “self-harm,” meaning that they had inflicted some of the injuries they sustained on themselves, a “fanciful statement.”

Haskell’s “apologies” were “not credible,” she said, adding that his behavior had “dehumanized” the children. Some of them had testified that he had punished them in “moments of anger and rage.”

Moore recalled an adult witness’s testimony that indicated inappropriate behavior toward a foreign exchange student during a pool party and another time when the eldest daughter “almost blatantly” grabbed her butt in church.

And she reminded jurors that after Haskell’s arrest, the defendant had asked the author of a “character letter” to remove a reference to him having had a “very close relationship” with the eldest daughter.

Moore said the eldest daughter, who testified, would not fabricate her allegations about “what happened almost every night while she was sleeping on the couch” in the family’s Vacaville home, which Haskell shared with his wife, Emily.

“She wanted to stand up for what was right and true,” Moore said at the end of her argument about her eldest daughter.

During the afternoon session, Maas reminded jurors that Moore must prove that his client not only did what he is accused of, but also that he acted with a specific intent and/or in a specific state of mind.

He also appeared to warn jurors against relying on circumstantial evidence, saying the prosecutor must convince them that she had proved every fact beyond a reasonable doubt.

Jurors, he said, heard testimony that Haskell tried to provide “a good life” for the children he and his wife, Emily, adopted in 2019.

As part of his argument, Maas showed several photos of a smiling and happy family gathered together. And he also denied allegations that Haskell had occasionally displayed inappropriate behavior toward the eldest daughter, asking rhetorically: “What kind of father would reject an adopted child?”

He repeatedly quoted statements made by some children to investigators that contradicted their testimony on the witness stand.

Maas also noted that the children enjoyed supervised visits with their parents conducted by Solano County social workers.

He interrogated the two eldest daughters and it took him several weeks or months before he accused the investigators of sexual abuse.

One of the girls on the witness stand “made up a story right before your eyes,” he told the jury.

The Haskells, he added, “took care of their adopted children.”

Maas pointed to several certificates that he advised Haskell to obtain from family friends, one of which, written by Andrea Mattson, stated that she would trust her client with her own children.

For about an hour, Maas showed slides of court transcripts that challenged the second eldest daughter’s claim that Haskell touched her on the thigh and near her vagina, not within a distance of two inches, but by placing his two hands together, the girl stated the distance was at least six inches.

If found guilty, Haskell faces two life sentences and will be required to register as a sex offender.

Maas’ closing statement will continue on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m., followed by Moore’s rebuttal.

The jury will then begin deliberations in accordance with Williams’ final instructions.