Batavia chiropractor gets 60 years for secretly recording patients

A Batavia chiropractor who secretly recorded unclothed child patients and distributed the videos on the Internet was sentenced Tuesday to 60 years in prison, the maximum possible.

Kane County Judge D.J. Tegeler said he wished he could have sentenced David Hanson to more. If Hanson had physically hurt the victims, he could have been sentenced to more than 1,300 years in prison, Tegeler said.

“The bravery that I saw today in the survivors of this horrible, unspeakable crime was very moving,” Tegeler said, of the people who read statements about how the crime has affected them or their children.

He said Hanson submitted a written statement in which he said he cared about the victims. Tegeler disagreed. “These survivors are pictures to sell. That’s all they are to you,” Tegeler said.

Tegeler also noted there were fathers of victims in the gallery, and if Hanson were to run into them on the street, “you might survive them. God help you when the mothers got ahold (of you).”

Hanson, 44, was arrested in November 2025.

He pleaded guilty Sept. 3 to one charge of producing child sexual abuse material of someone under 13 and one charge of disseminating child sexual abuse material of someone under 13. Both are felonies.

Authorities believe Hanson recorded at least 180 people at his office, including several adults. The cameras were hidden in vents and fans in rooms where patients received red-light and near-infrared therapy. Hanson told people the treatments would be better if they were in their “birthday suits” and stretched, according to testimony.

Hanson distributed the videos on the Discord, Session and SimpleX messaging apps.

At the sentencing hearing, victim after victim revealed how they no longer trust medical providers, wonder now if they are being secretly recorded in dressing rooms and restrooms, were betrayed by Hanson, and how angry they are. Several testified they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

A young woman said she started seeing him when she was a child. When she was a teenager, he urged her to get red-light therapy to deal with the effects of being a dancer. He offered the treatments for free, and told her the more skin she exposed, the more effective the light therapy would be.

“Oddly enough, my father and brother were never asked to try it,” she said.

And another longtime patient said she had so much trust in Hanson that when he promoted his services to a local high school’s girls volleyball team, she let him treat her 16-year-old daughter, who was a player.

“Little did I know I was placing her into the hands of a pedophile,” the woman said.

“Dave, you have some serious soul-searching to do. And I am at peace knowing you are going to have plenty of time to do that,” the woman said.

A man read his wife’s victim impact statement. Their 9-year-old daughter was recorded. “Speaking as a husband and a father, I hope you rot and die in prison,” the man said.

The courtroom was standing-room-only, with at least a dozen other people watching in an overflow room and 180 watching via Zoom.

Hanson will have to serve at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole. He will have to register for life as a sex offender.

ssarkauskas@dailyherald.com