Doctor convicted of sending ‘sexually motivated’ messages to Newport Harbor High cheerleaders – Orange County Register

A doctor accused of sending “sexually motivated” messages to two high school cheerleaders by using fake names on social media while volunteering at a Newport Beach campus was sentenced to six months on Friday sentenced to prison.

David Lee Haller, a family doctor, was also sentenced to a year of formal probation – with an additional 183 days in prison avoided pending the completion of his supervised release – and ordered to register as a sex offender after being convicted of two misdemeanors kids upset.

Haller, now 55, was accused of texting two 15-year-old students at Newport Harbor High School in late 2017, in which family members said they “scared” the girls and made them feel like they were being followed. At the time, Haller was a volunteer for the UC Irvine Spirit Cheerleading team, who also served as a doctor at several Newport Harbor High School events.

According to prosecutors, Haller initially contacted one of the teens via a direct message on Instagram, in which he pretended to be a middle school cheerleader and asked about high school cheerleading costumes and if boys had ever tried looking up their skirts. When the girl blocked him, prosecutors said Haller used a Snapchat account to ask her about cheerleading uniforms again and asked if he could donate her money while implying he was watching her.

Haller used Snapchat to message the second girl, prosecutors said, telling her he had seen her at a game, while describing exactly where she was positioned among other cheerleaders. Haller also told the teen that he saw her bending down and felt guilty watching her.

Prosecutors allege Haller also texted two other girls, although he was not directly charged in connection with those messages. A coach at the school contacted authorities after discovering that an unknown person had contacted several cheerleaders on social media and contacted some of them directly.

Haller initially denied to a school resource officer that he was behind the messages, prosecutors said, until the officer said they linked the social media accounts the girls had contacted to his phone.

According to prosecutors, Haller then told the school’s resource officer that if the messages were from him or anyone else, they were not threatening or harassing, adding that he enjoyed watching cheerleaders and saying that 16-year-olds “look like 18- year-olds and “he looks at her even though he knows he shouldn’t.”

Prosecutors argued in one criminal case that the girls Haller messaged were at particular risk because of their age, that he showed planning and sophistication by using multiple social media accounts with fake names, and that he used access , which he had as a doctor and volunteer.

An attorney representing Haller previously wrote in a court filing that Haller never attempted to develop a personal relationship with any of the teen cheerleaders through social media and never reached out to them personally.