Santa Clara police have arrested blogger Robert — “Butch” — Haugh, charging him with “sexual penetration with a foreign object,” according to the arrest log. Haugh could not be reached for comment. [arrest log]
If convicted, Haugh faces up to 10 years in state prison. No hearing has been scheduled as of this writing. Haugh doesn’t have any previous arrests.
Haugh was arrested on Aug. 13 at the El Camino Target store and booked into County jail that night. The case has been referred to the District Attorney’s office, which has no comment right now out of consideration for the victim, according to the PIO Cynthia Sumida.
Haugh has been accused in the past of harassing behavior, but has no criminal record. In 2015 his ex-wife’s grandmother requested an Elder Abuse restraining order against him.
The alleged abuse took place in the neo-natal ICU at Santa Clara Kaiser Permanente hospital, and the victim alleged that Haugh had directed “hours of condescending ridicule against her.”
When asked to stop the stream of invective, the victim said that Haugh “slammed his fists on the chair and came at us in a threatening manner,” but was blocked by his ex-wife. When the victim and her son left the room, the complaint continues, “He clenched his fists in a threatening manner.” [haugh grandmother complaint].
The elderly woman subsequently cancelled a hearing after her attorney advised no restraining order was necessary because there had been no subsequent contact with Haugh. “It appears that Robert Haugh does not desire any contact with us, which is all we ever wanted anyway,” she wrote.
The Weekly has also been told of allegations that Haugh harassed a local political activist, making repeated nuisance phone calls to the person’s employer, claiming he was “checking references.”
Haugh is a former sportswriter for The Weekly and was a prominent booster of Levi’s Stadium — he wrote dozens of stories promoting the stadium project starting in the late 2000s. He was fired for posting defamatory falsehoods about the newspaper’s staff on social media accounts.
He fell out of love with the 49ers after a 2016 meeting with Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Councilmember Teresa O’Neill during which they proposed that he start a blog, according to texts in The Weekly’s possession.
Since then Haugh has worked for Diya TV USA, the school sports website Prep2Prep, tried his hand at being a wrestling promoter, and was reportedly taking classes in early childhood education at a local community college.
Updated on Aug. 23: Read an update here.
View Comments (13)
Oh, how the so-called mighty fall, oh how the tables have turned. Haugh was always a degenerate. I heard about the ex-wife, the child support problems, the ugly divorce, his car being repossessed, the fake news on his site, the call from Child Protection Services after he violated children's privacy laws when attacking a city councilman during the campaign, and so much more. But thanks to this great and revealing piece of reporting, I'm shocked but not surprised, that he's much worse than anyone could have thought possible.
I feel this is a prime example of karma and irony. He attacked Caserta for sexual harassment and uses him as a bogeyman to attack Gillmor's opponents well after the fact that the DA never even arrested Caserta nor charged him due to lack of evidence. Now he's being arrested for sexual assault, a much worse offense, with strong evidence proving his guilt.
He has a long history of recorded abusive behavior, made in extremely public places like the ICU of a hospital with lots of security cameras and witnesses and/or via recorded phone messages, as made clear by this article. But now where is Gillmor and her so-called leadership? When Caserta was accused, they all dog-piled on him. But now I hear crickets from them. I know this is so because of another great article by the SC Weekly/SV Voice exposed that Gillmor's Guy Friday Jude Berry provided the fund for Haugh's site. Gillmor's silence on this matter speaks volumes about her hypocrisy and corrupt nature. Can't wait to vote her flying monkeys on council out, to vote people who actually care about Santa Clara in to hold her (the Donald Trump of Silicon Valley) accountable, and for more great journalism from here the Santa Clara Weekly/Silicon Valley Voice!
https://www.svvoice.com/the-full-picture-of-santa-claras-8th-council-member/?fbclid=IwAR1HqzuHAe_Ybm1dHiq3JGnej3wuOwMMON9awXlJwA7C0J_C1Rn8_MSIOQM#https://www.svvoice.com/politics-and-business-make-an-interesting-mix-at-city-hall/
Preach Edward Lamb!
Carolyn, is it true you didn't ask for comment until after the article was written?
And is it true the charges were DROPPED 4 days before you posted your article?
Does this sound like journalism? Or just a political hit piece?
Hi Howard. Thanks for being a reader. Before the story was published I called Mr. Haugh. He didn't take my call and didn't refer me to his attorney — Mr. Smith called me at 6 pm on Saturday. An update has been published. We've received no response from the DA as of 2:50 pm Sunday.
https://www.svvoice.com/da-rejected-case-says-haugh-lawyer-but-da-didnt-say-that-4-days-later/
It sure is a good thing that you made sure to detail his “falling out of love” with the local sports team as if it were a fact that bears any significance to the story at hand and possibly as a means to drum up hostile sentiments toward him from 49ers fans. Additionally, making such a point to draw negative attention to what is basically a competing news publication to the Weekly is both transparent and teeters on editorializing.
According to Haugh’s response, there were never any charges against him. That’s easily verifiable one way or the other. Weekly says yes, there were. Haugh says no. Either the Weekly or Haugh is lying. Nothing on the Santa Clara Superior Court website about any charges.
Which is it?
Hey JB, What I read was Robert said the charges were dropped four days before the article. I didn't read it to say there were no charges.
Good point. I think it comes down to the use of the term “charges.” In a strict legal sense, the term means a filing (complaint, information) by the DA. More generally, in lay terms, the term is not infrequently used where one is merely arrested for some violation. In that sense, both sides may be right.
I have no doubt the weekly interviewed the appropriate authorities before publishing. Even law enforcement or DA may use the term “charges” in lay terms to make the situation more decipherable for the reader.
Just my best guess.
I don't get it. How difficult is it to look at the photo of the arrest log that's *linked* in the article.
If that's not proof enough, you can also look at this page on the City of Santa Clara's website ( found it with a simple AskJeeves search on "Santa Clara arrest log"):
https://www.santaclaraca.gov/our-city/departments-g-z/police-department/crime/arrest-log
Clicking on the link on that page that says, "Arrest Log" -
https://www.santaclaraca.gov/home/showdocument?id=62323
Then you can either search for "HAUGH,ROBERT ALAN" or scroll down to page 6 of 27 to see it there online.
Sadly the Santa Clara Police Department doesn't have a "released log" or a "charges dropped log." We only have an "Arrest Log" to go from that clearly shows Robert was *arrested*.
And we also only have his side of the story. He says the charge were dropped. Fine, but he also says the article has "false claims and bad reporting."
What are the false claims and bad reporting?
The article here says he was *arrested*.
Was that not the case?
Did the Santa Clara Police Department lie or fabricate the arrest log?
Perhaps Robert has stumbled upon a great conspiracy where the SCPD routinely fabricates evidence and arrests completely innocent people?? I can see Robert now... leading the protest march down El Camino Real to Defund the Santa Clara Police!
The previous complaint against him has lots of bearing. I read it that he threatened his ex-wife's (then) 64-year old grandmother, subjecting her to “hours of condescending ridicule...." and he "...slammed his fists on the chair and came at us in a threatening manner,” but was blocked by his ex-wife."
For those rushing to Robert's defense, it's refreshing to know where you stand on the issue of Elder Abuse. I think we can lump the #MeToo movement into this as well since his ex-wife's *grandmother* felt threatened by his actions.
Maybe it's a case of a bad divorce and his ex-wife tried to take advantage of the situation. Maybe there's more to it than that. But you're just going to take just Robert's word for it?
I've submitted several comments on his "blog" but somehow, he's chosen not to publish them. Why? Because they're not flattering to him. Robert only prints the news and views he sees fit. Oh my, what a remarkable journalist he is.
I have read and often times tried to respond on his blog but since my opinion differs from his quite frequently, he doesn't post them.
We always knew this guy was a sham.
Maybe the great attorney Robert Mezzetti and his record on helping survivors of sexual abuse will be hired to help the victim(s) of Robert Haugh. His expertise is greatly appreciated. They don't just arrest you for nothing these days.
#JusticeMatters #TruthMatters #ArrestedBlogger