Bail increased for daycare worker accused of sexual assault

SCOTT SONNER

Wednesday, March 7, 2001 | 1:38 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - A judge increased bail to $250,000 Wednesday for a Reno man accused of sexually assaulting toddlers at the daycare center where he worked.

Gary Hanneman, 33, faces 10 counts of sexual assault and pornography-related charges. Police allege he has admitted molesting as many as 27 children.

Fidel Salcedo, Reno justice of the peace, granted the request to raise the bail and make it cash only after prosecutors told him police have reviewed a videotape that shows Hanneman allegedly sexually assaulting one child "hundreds of times."

"The concern I have is mainly for the community and any children out there who could become victims of the defendant," Salcedo said.

Salcedo pointed to police reports that quoted Hanneman saying "he cannot stop what he is doing.

"I'm concerned, quite frankly, that if he is going to get out and offend another child because he can't stop himself from doing that," he said.

Hanneman's lawyer, David Houston, said the $250,000 cash only bail level was the equivalent of a $2.5 million bail in a typical case in which a suspect can be released by posting a bond for 10 percent of the bail.

He said Hanneman was in no position to make even the $100,000 cash bail that originally was set last week after his arrest.

"In first-degree murder cases, we have less bail. In gang shootings we have less bail," he told the judge.

Before the hearing, Houston said the prosecutors' request to increase bail was part of their effort to portray Hanneman as "a monster.

"To seek higher bail with no additional counts seems to be a situation of satisfying political needs rather than the bail purpose," he said.

Washoe County Deputy District Attorney Cheryl Hier-Johnson said the 10 counts filed so far focus on only two toddlers. Eight of those charges carry maximum penalties of life in prison.

She said additional charges will be filed when the investigation is complete.

Hanneman worked at the Children City Learning Center across from the University of Nevada since May 1999.

"There is so much evidence and so many potential victims out there, it is going to take time," she said.

Police have reviewed about 450 of the more than 500 videotapes they seized from Hanneman's home in Stead, just north of Reno, she said.

She said one 51-minute segment of one tape shows "one act after another ... apparently compiled over time on tape.

"There is one particular child where there are hundreds of acts of sexual assault," Hier-Johnson said.

She rejected Houston's claim that politics was at play.

"In light of the evidence, $250,000 is reasonable. ... Maybe based on what we know now, it is a little low," she said.

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