Judge Salvador Vasquez granted a defense lawyer’s request in a hearing Friday to reschedule a Griffith man’s trial for allegedly preying on and molesting two children.
Joshua Hansen, 32, is facing 23 felonies including three counts of Level 1 Felony child molesting. He is facing decades behind bars.
His trial is now reset for March 4.
A jury had been picked on Monday but was dismissed later in the week.
Deputy Prosecutor Tara Villarreal objected to further delays. They were ready for trial ASAP, she said in a court hearing earlier on Wednesday.
Hansen has pleaded not guilty and is represented by lawyer Adrian Guzman.
“You needa think about what’s going on right now, I’m gonna be gone for a really long time, if we don’t figure this out,” he told an adult witness in a Jan. 7 jail call, according to charging documents.
It’s not my fault, the witness said.
“Ok, but you didn’t need to do this, you could have called me,” he said.
Two victims told police that they were first molested by Hansen years earlier around ages 4 or 5.
Hansen began molesting them again “several” times in the summer of 2022 and again around Christmas, according to a criminal affidavit.
He showed the children pornography, according to the affidavit.
When police executed a search warrant at his trailer on the 4700 block of Marshall Court in Gary, they found sex toys and paraphernalia, and pornography web searches. They removed a tablet for evidence. They also found child pornography on his cell phone.
DNA evidence appears to corroborate the children’s accounts, according to the affidavit.
mcolias-pete@post-trib.com