A suburban Chicago chiropractor has been charged with secretly recording his patients — including minors — while they were undressed and distributing child sexual abuse material, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Dr. David Hanson, 43, faces multiple felony counts, including five for producing, three for disseminating, and two for possessing child pornography, along with an additional charge for making an unauthorized video recording of a minor through or under clothing, according to the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Authorities said the investigation began in September after a tip to the cyber sex abuse hotline led investigators to Hanson’s home. There, they reportedly found child pornography on his computer and phone, along with over 180 videos recorded at his Batavia chiropractic office.
“This is an excessive amount of child sex abuse material, as well as other unauthorized recordings discovered during the investigation,” said Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser.
Prosecutors said the victims were mostly female and ranged in age from as young as three years old to adults. Many of the recordings were allegedly taken inside a red-light therapy room, where patients were required to undress for treatment. Hidden cameras had been placed throughout the office to record patients without their knowledge.
In addition to the secretly filmed videos, Hanson was accused of possessing and sharing multiple child sex abuse materials unrelated to his patients.
Authorities executed search warrants at Hanson’s home and office on Wednesday, located at 1928 W. Wilson St. in Batavia, and arrested him that evening. During his detention hearing on Thursday, a judge ruled Hanson a threat to the community and ordered him to remain in custody. He is scheduled to appear in court again Monday morning.
Investigators have not yet determined how long Hanson had been recording patients and are urging any current or former patients to come forward.
“It has to be terrifying for those individuals,” Mosser said. “We don’t yet know if any of the videos were live-streamed. Our forensic analysts are still working to determine that.”
Anyone who believes they or their children may have been victimized is asked to contact prosecutors at 630-444-3322 or email [email protected].
“People should not be afraid or ashamed,” Mosser added. “These individuals sought treatment from someone they trusted — and that trust was deeply violated by him.”
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