Haidl is arrested on statutory rape count

Deepa Bharath

Orange County Sheriff’s deputies on Thursday arrested an assistant

sheriff’s 19-year-old son -- who is awaiting retrial on a gang-rape

case -- after prosecutors charged that the teenager had sex with an

underage girl, officials said.

Greg Haidl, son of Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, was

arrested on suspicion of having sex with a minor. He was stopped in

Dana Point at 5:20 p.m. as he was driving near the intersection of

Coast Highway and Street of the Golden Lantern, said Orange County

Sheriff’s Lt. Hayward Miller. Greg Haidl’s mother was with him at the

time of the arrest, he said.

Greg Haidl was booked at the Men’s Central Jail in Santa Ana with

bail set at $100,000. The new statutory rape charge, a misdemeanor,

stems from an allegation that Haidl had sex with a girl younger than

17 years old Tuesday night at a gathering in a San Clemente home.

Statutory rape is a felony in California when more than a three-year

age difference exists between the two involved.

Officials responded to a noise complaint at the San Clemente home,

where they found Haidl with four other teenagers, including the girl,

police said. The girl did not make a complaint against Haidl. A small

amount of marijuana was also found at the residence, police said.

Before Thursday’s arrest, Greg Haidl was free on a $100,000 bail

on the gang-rape case in which he, along with co-defendants Kyle

Nachreiner and Keith Spann is accused of raping an unconscious

16-year-old girl in the assistant sheriff’s Corona del Mar home and

sexually assaulting her with various objects.

A jury in June deadlocked on all 24 counts against the teenagers,

forcing the judge to declare a mistrial. The district attorney’s

office filed for a retrial a day after jurors deadlocked. A pretrial

hearing on that case has been scheduled for Aug. 6.

Greg Haidl’s attorney, Pete Scalisi said he does not see the new

charge affecting the gang-rape case.

“It should not affect his bail either,” he said. “The number-one

principle of our justice system is presumption of innocence until

proven guilty, and Mr. Haidl is presumed innocent in both these

cases.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Schroeder was not available for comment

Thursday night, but had said on Wednesday that the district attorney

may ask the judge to raise Haidl’s bail if the statutory rape charge

were to be filed.

The assistant sheriff’s son has had a series of encounters with

law enforcement since being charged in the gang-rape case. All three

of those incidents, not including the most recent one on Tuesday,

involved illegal skateboarding. However, no charges were filed on any

of those incidents.

Haidl is scheduled to appear in court on the statutory rape charge

on Monday.

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

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