Doctor, charged with sending ‘sexually motivated’ messages to Newport Harbor High cheerleaders, has bail set
An Orange County Superior Court judge agreed to set bail for a doctor, who volunteered at a Newport Beach campus and is accused of sending “sexually motivated” messages to two high school girls, after authorities say the man while awaiting trial traveled to a cheerleading event in Florida and sent similar messages to a cheerleader.
David Lee Haller, 51, was initially allowed to remain free on his own recognizance after being charged in June with two misdemeanor counts of child annoyance.
In January, investigators said they determined that Haller, a medical doctor who volunteered at several Newport Harbor High School events in 2017, had traveled to a national college cheerleading event in Florida and was accused of sending unwanted, sexual messages to a college-age competitor.
“This is the same sort of conduct the defendant was charged with,” Deputy District Attorney Paul Chrisopoulos told Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregory Jones during a Thursday morning hearing at the Newport Beach courthouse. “There is concern among … parents, there is concern among the Newport-Mesa (Unified) School District.”
The mother of one of the high school girls Haller is accused of messaging said he first contacted her daughter via Instagram by posing as a young girl interested in joining cheerleading. The Southern California News Group is not naming the mother, in order to avoid identifying a potential underage victim.
“Not only were our daughters terrified and stalked, but we parents were terrified,” the mother told the judge. “He continues to stalk girls, and it’s not fair our daughters’ innocence has been taken away.”
Haller’s attorney, Alan Castillo, said his client planned to post bail.
“We ask the public not to rush to judgment,” Castillo said. “The law presumes his innocence.”
The judge ordered bail set at $50,000 and for Haller to stay away for now from certain school campuses as well as athletic events at several universities.
If convicted of the current charges, Haller faces up to two years in county jail.