A San Diego-area man charged with stalking and threatening nine women in San Diego had worked as a substitute teacher in Temecula, it was reported today.
One alleged victim is a Temecula teacher and the others are female San Diego TV reporters, who were instructed in threatening messages to wear hoop earrings and open-toed shoes on television newscasts, according to news reports.
Police in Temecula and San Diego believe Christopher Carl Hass called and wrote the women, and threatened to rape and strangle them with pantyhose.
According to news reports, Hass was a substitute teacher in Temecula Valley Unified School District from December 2003 to April 2009, when he asked to be taken off the list. A school district spokeswoman said Hass worked sporadically at middle and high schools.
Hass was arrested Feb. 11 at the home he shares with his wife in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Bernardo. San Diego County prosecutors charged him with stalking and making criminal threats and harassing telephone calls.
He pleaded not guilty in a Feb. 18 arraignment, and jail records show he remains in San Diego County jail with bail set at $500,000. He is to appear in court April 5 for a readiness conference and April 12 for a preliminary
hearing.
The first call reported to San Diego authorities, in May 2007, was from a man who called himself a “sicko” who liked “pretty ladies,” according to news reports.
Investigators linked Hass to several cases through fingerprints and DNA gathered from some of the letters, according to San Diego County prosecutor Wendy Patrick.
According to news reports, Hass had been arrested twice in other states for similar charges. Investigators gave no other information on those cases.
Jennifer Glaser, a Temecula Middle School teacher, received six annoying or threatening calls to her classroom phone in August 2008, according to news reports.
According to court documents, a man who identified himself as Dave asked Glaser if she could talk. She hung up, but he called back and told her he was “very dangerous” and “did not want to hurt her.”
The man reportedly talked about her clothes and hair, and Temecula police recorded additional calls to Glaser from various pay phones in Temecula in the following months, according to news reports.
Glaser got a letter in October 2008 from “Dave,” who wrote, “See Jennifer. Be sweet and I will not hurt you or rape you or get so upset that I have to hurt someone else,” according to the reports.
The letter also said he told Glaser that after one conversation with her, he had kidnapped raped a girl in Los Angeles. He reportedly concluded by writing, “If I am happy, nobody gets hurt or raped. Bye now Jennifer. Talk to
you soon.”
Court records say Hass may have called Temecula Middle School, demanding to talk to Glaser, as recently as Feb. 9. The call came from a pay phone at a Temecula supermarket, where surveillance footage
reportedly showed a man resembling Hass.
Temecula police learned that San Diego detectives were investigating similar cases involving a man who called himself Dave, according to news reports.
It is unclear whether Temecula school officials knew of Hass’ prior arrests and whether he should have been disqualified for substitute teaching.
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