D.A. can remain on rape case, judge says

Deepa Bharath

A Superior Court judge on Monday refused to take the Orange County

district attorney off a rape case involving three Inland Valley

teenagers, including the 18-year-old son of an Orange County

assistant sheriff with a home in Corona del Mar.

Judge Francisco Briseno stated in a four-page ruling that there

was no conflict of interest in Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas

prosecuting the son of Don Haidl, a high-ranking county official who

contributed to the district attorney’s campaign.

Greg Haidl, Kyle Nachreiner and Keith Spann, both 19, are accused

of raping an unconscious 16-year-old girl in Don Haidl’s Corona del

Mar home in July 2002. All three have pleaded not guilty to 24 felony

counts each. Their attorneys have said that the sex was consensual.

If convicted, they face up to 55 years and four months in state

prison.

Defense attorneys for the younger Haidl argued that their client

was a pawn in the hands of the county’s political bigwigs. They said

that Rackauckas’ office overcharged Greg Haidl and his codefendants

to salvage the district attorney’s tarnished political image -- to

show that he could prosecute the son of a powerful man who gave money

to his campaign.

Briseno stated in his ruling that he does not see a political

motive behind the charges. A 20-minute videotape, which allegedly

captures the three teenagers sexually assaulting the unconscious

16-year-old girl with a bottle, a can, a lighted cigarette and a pool

cue, “provides a substantial showing for the specific acts alleged or

the roles that each defendant participated in.”

“The video exists because of the acts of the defendants,” the

judge wrote.

Defense attorneys had also filed a motion alleging prosecutorial

misconduct, stating that Deputy Dist. Atty. Jana Hoffmann had

interfered with a civil case filed by Greg Haidl’s mother in San

Bernardino County.

The judge said that Hoffmann may have made an error in the way she

went about getting a protective order to prevent the victim from

testifying in the civil case, but it was not misconduct as alleged by

defense attorneys.

Rackauckas described the defense motion as “an attack on the

integrity and honesty of every prosecutor in our office” during a

press conference on Monday afternoon. He was accompanied on the dais

by deputy district attorneys Hoffmann, Camille Hill and Dan Hess, who

is now prosecuting the case, as well as Rosanne Froeberg, who

supervises the sexual assault unit.

“This motion is simply an attempt to divert attention from the

case,” Rackauckas said. “This case is about a 16-year-old who is

someone’s daughter, someone’s niece and someone’s friend. Something

happened to her that no girl should go through.”

Rackauckas said his office has no conflict of interest in the case

and that the defendants in this case have been treated like those in

any other case.

“Our attorneys have exercised professional, fair and objective

judgment,” he said. “I’m proud of them.”

If the judge had taken the district attorney off the case, it

would have gone to the state attorney general. Atty. Gen. Bill

Lockyer filed an opinion last month in Orange County Superior Court

stating that he did not see a conflict of interest and that the

videotape was enough to support the charges.

“The videotape is the most important piece of evidence in the

case,” Rackauckas said.

“This is a 16-year-old girl, she’s unconscious, and the tape will

show that,” he said.

The tape is significant evidence, but has been overplayed by the

prosecution, said Joseph Cavallo, lead attorney for Greg Haidl’s

defense team.

“It’s not the only evidence,” he said. “And I think it’s

inappropriate for the district attorney to be talking about the

evidence in a pending case.”

Cavallo said he expected Briseno’s ruling.

“No one in the district attorney’s office was willing to testify

for us because they feared losing their jobs,” he said. “So, the

judge had no choice but to rule the way he did, and I accept that.”

But those “inside the district attorney’s office know what their

intentions are,” Cavallo said.

“These are the lives of three teenage boys that are being toyed

with,” he said.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at [email protected].