Appeals likely for verdicts in gang-rape case

Marisa O’Neil

The three-year-long saga that began with the discovery of a sex tape

and culminated Wednesday in rape convictions of a former Sheriff’s

official’s son and two friends isn’t yet over.

After a jury last year could not reach a verdict, another jury on

Wednesday found Greg Haidl, son of former Orange County Assistant

Sheriff Don Haidl, and Rancho Cucamonga residents Kyle Nachreiner and

Keith Spann guilty of 15 of 27 charged counts of sexual assault

against a 16-year-old girl. The three defendants are now in Orange

County Jail awaiting sentencing.

And already a civil suit and motions for a new trial are in the

works.

“I respect the jury’s verdicts but respectfully disagree with

their verdicts,” Pete Scalisi, one of Haidl’s attorneys, said

Thursday.

Defense attorneys will file a motion before a May 20 sentencing

hearing, asking the court for a new trial, Scalisi said. They will

point to what they felt were problems with jury instructions and

exclusion of a witness and allegations that the victim, known as Jane

Doe in court, wanted money from the Haidl family to drop the charges.

“If we were out for the money, we could have taken the money

without a trial,” said Doe’s attorney, Sheldon Lodmer.

Wednesday’s verdicts gave Doe some satisfaction, Lodmer said.

Defense attorneys in both trials attacked her credibility and painted

her as a lying, hard-drinking, promiscuous partyer who willingly

participated in the videotaped encounter.

Prosecutor Chuck Middleton asked jurors during the second trial to

consider what the defendants did to her, not base their decision on

who Doe was.

“She’s happy about the verdict,” Lodmer said. “She feels somewhat

vindicated because of what happened first time around.”

But the convictions also help pave the way for a civil suit, he

said. That suit is currently in the works and will likely be filed in

the next 60 days either in Orange County, where the assault took

place, or in San Bernardino County where Doe, Spann and Nachreiner

live.

Lodmer said they have not yet decided the amount of the suit,

which could include allegations of battery, assault, negligence and

emotional distress, he said.

Prosecutors said the July 2002 videotape -- filmed at Haidl’s

Corona del Mar home -- shows the then-17-year-olds raping and

sexually assaulting an unconscious Doe with various objects.

The defendants were acquitted on rape charges, but were convicted

of multiple charges of sexual penetration by a foreign object. Greg

Haidl was convicted of six counts, Spann of five and Nachreiner of

four.

Each faces more than a dozen years in jail, though they could also

get probation.

“The world has to understand that you can’t get away with this

kind of behavior,” Lodmer said.

The verdicts hit the defendants and their families hard.

Nachreiner and Spann, who showed little emotion during the trial,

wept openly as the verdicts were read and as they were handcuffed and

led out of the courtroom Wednesday.

Nachreiner and Spann’s families sobbed loudly in the courtroom.

Greg Haidl’s mother, who waited outside the 11th-floor courtroom

during most of the jury’s nearly three-day deliberations, nearly

collapsed as she waited for an elevator following the verdicts.

“Everybody in his family is depressed and sad about the verdict,”

Scalisi said. “They’re taking it really hard.”

Though the first two trials took an emotional toll on Doe, she’s

prepared to testify in a civil trial, Lodmer said.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4618 or by e-mail at [email protected].