Bail posted for former teacher charged with abuse of 10 girls
Jun. 23—SALEM — Daniel Hakim, the former Saltonstall School physical education teacher charged with sexually abusing 10 girls there, was released from custody Wednesday after his $200,000 bail was posted.
Hakim, 36, of North Andover, was indicted and arraigned last week on 32 counts of aggravated indecent assault and battery on a child, involving girls who were between the ages of 6 and 8 at the time.
Hakim worked at the Salem school from 2015 until 2018.
He was first charged in December, in Salem District Court, after the mother of one girl reported last fall that Hakim had inappropriately touched her back in 2016.
Since then, nine more girls and their parents made similar disclosures.
Judge Thomas Drechsler cited the potential penalty Hakim faces in granting the prosecution's request to set bail at $200,000 last week.
Prosecutors were not able to request detention without bail for Hakim. That's because the section of the bail law that allows for a judge to deny bail to someone deemed dangerous does not include indecent assault and battery on a child when no "force" was used.
It's an issue that has come up repeatedly in recent months, as Gov. Charlie Baker has pushed for an amendment that would add sex offenses against children to the list of crimes for which a judge can deny bail.
Drechsler did add a requirement that Hakim be fitted with a GPS ankle bracelet, remain on house arrest, and that he stay away from the girls and their families while the case is pending.
He also ordered that the bail could not be posted until a bracelet was available and placed on Hakim. That happened Wednesday morning, according to court records.
Neither Hakim's lawyer, Syrie Fried, nor prosecutor Anne Marie Gochis were present in court and Hakim did not have to appear in the courtroom.
School officials, the Department of Children and Families, and Salem police were aware of multiple accusations of inappropriate behavior by Hakim in 2018, when he was terminated from the school and his teaching license suspended.
He later formally surrendered his teaching license in 2020, according to records obtained by The Salem News through a public records request.
DCF had previously made a determination that the accusations were "unsupported."
A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Aug. 8. Officials have said their investigation is ongoing.
Prior to working in the Salem Public Schools, Hakim had been employed by several other school districts and schools.
He worked at the Brooks School in Andover in 2015 and 2016 in a "Teen Challenge" program; he had also worked as a health teacher at the Shawsheen Elementary School in Wilmington from 2013 until 2015, and for the Collaborative for Educational Services from 2009 until 2013.
Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, jmanganis@gloucestertimes.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis
Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, jmanganis@gloucestertimes.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis
