Missing California teacher, student found here

Keith Paul

Friday, May 3, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

A California high school teacher was held without bond today in the Clark County jail after being found in a Strip hotel Thursday with one of her 15-year-old students.

Tanya Hadden, 33, was charged with eight counts of statutory sexual seduction and one count of kidnapping. Hadden likely will have her first appearance in court Monday when a bail could be set on the kidnapping charge. The bail for the other counts is $24,000. The boy, who has been missing since Monday, was returned to his parents Thursday.

Clark County prosecutors will talk with California authorities to determine if she will face charges in Las Vegas or if she will be tried on charges in California.

"If we have laws broken here we don't ignore it just because the victim or the defendant is a tourist," Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said. "At the same time, we don't get into a jurisdictional tug of war. If California has a good case and justice will be served, then maybe it is something we don't need to prosecute."

Police in San Bernardino, Calif., contacted Metro Police Thursday with information that Hadden and the 15-year-old freshman may be in Las Vegas. Police were able to track the pair down to the New Frontier Hotel about 10 a.m. Thursday. Hadden was taken into custody and booked into the jail at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

Police accuse Hadden of having a sexual relationship with the boy. Since the the age of consent is 16 in Nevada, she was charged with the eight counts of statutory sexual seduction, said Lt. Jeff Carlson of Metro's sexual assault unit.

"She was charged with kidnapping for taking the boy. We are not saying that he was taken by force, but taken without his parents' knowledge," he said.

The pair disappeared Monday after San Bernardino Police went to Cajon High School to investigate allegations that the student and teacher had a five-week relationship.

The boy was a student in Hadden's first-period science class, according to the boy's parents. The teacher often drove the boy and other classmates home after school.

A police investigator had come to the high school Monday and talked with the boy and several classmates. The investigation followed a complaint by a parent that Hadden had supplied alcohol to several of her students during a Friday night dance.

By the end of the school day Monday, Hadden and the boy were missing, police said.

In California, police were seeking a warrant for Hadden's arrest on a felony charge of unlawful abduction of a minor, said Lt. Frank Mankin of the San Bernardino Police.

Bell said the charges in Las Vegas will continue to move forward until talking with California authorities.

Such was the case when a former Indiana Baptist school principal caught in Las Vegas with an 11-year-old girl in May 2001 and arrested with charges similar to the Hadden case.

William A. "Andy" Beith was sent back to Indiana to face charges and prosecutors here dropped the local charges.

"What we did was dismiss the charges without prejudice and follow the case," Bell said. "If he didn't get any time (in prison) we could renew the charges.

"We aren't going to let people just move from state to state and avoid justice."