A full day after The Weekly reported on Robert Haugh’s sexual assault arrest, Haugh’s attorney Chuck Smith returned The Weekly’s unanswered Friday phone call, saying that the case against Haugh was rejected by the District Attorney’s office.
The Weekly has sought clarification from the DA, but has not received an answer at of this writing.
The DA, said Smith, notified him on Monday, Aug. 17 that the case against Haugh had been rejected. “The DA chose not to file charges,” he said.
On Aug. 21, when directly asked about the status of the case on Aug. 21, PIO Cynthia Sumida told The Weekly that the DA’s office wasn’t commenting and that further information would be forthcoming this week.
The accusation, Smith says, is part of an attempt by Haugh’s ex-wife to deny Haugh custody rights.
“It’s true that children don’t lie about sexual abuse,” Smith said. “The one area where experts will tell you the claim may not be true is when the claim arises is in the course of a custody battle. It’s a classic situation.”
Smith is a criminal defense attorney based in Redwood City. One of his high profile cases is that of Isaiah Peoples, the man accused of deliberately driving a car into a crowd of people in Sunnyvale crosswalk in April 2019.
Update on Aug. 25: Read an update on this story here.
View Comments (3)
In my days playing a lawyer on TV, it was only the worst of divorce cases where on parent used this type of tactic against the other. But for it to happen means there are problems on both sides. The Elder Abuse complaint that Haugh's ex-wife's grandmother filed shows a history of anger and angry outbursts. To quote an old saying, "where there's smoke, there's likely fire," makes me wonder if there was some merit to the complaint that Haugh in the slammer even though it sounds like the DA decided not to prosecute.
Thank you for the follow up. Good to know you did your homework before you reported. It’s unfortunate that the DA didn’t give you the full story especially if the charges had been dropped. Regardless I’ve followed that news site and see the unethical way they report
On August 2, 2020 Haugh wrote this on his blog..."In 2018, Caserta was accused of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment by numerous female high school students and campaign staff during his run for County Supervisor. Caserta landed on the Creep Sheet that year."
I did a bit of checking this morning and according to an August 15, 2018 publication in the Mercury News, the DA determined that "No charges will be filed" in Caserta's sexual harassment scandal. Classic case of kettle calling the pot black. Two years later Haugh still grinds against Caserta but his panties get in a wad if others do it to him. It'll be interesting to see how Haugh reacts if the Internet keeps bringing up his alleged molestation of a child for the next two years.