A 44-year-old Redwood City resident who pleaded no contest to seven felony counts of lewd acts with a child — and was originally charged with 73 felonies for child molestation and child pornography — is looking into withdrawing his plea, Deputy District Attorney Sean Gallagher said.
The man, David Hackworth, is facing 40 years to life in prison and was granted a two-week continuance to look into hiring a new lawyer and seeing if there’s grounds for plea withdrawal, Gallagher said.
The case will be heard on March 12.
Hackworth pleaded no contest to meeting six female victims under the age of 13 online from 2017 to 2020, convincing the children to touch themselves on video, taking screenshots and sharing the videos with other pedophiles, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office said.
The seventh victim, a family member, was physically molested by Hackworth, the DA’s Office said.
The case was originally uncovered by the Colorado police, who notified the Sheriff’s Office. A warrant for his residence revealed thousands of child pornography images, the DA’s Office said.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
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Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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