Rape Accuser Again Cries Under Cross-Examination

An alleged rape victim broke down in tears on the witness stand again Thursday as a defense attorney challenged her version of a 2002 party during which, she said, she passed out and three teenage boys sexually attacked her in a videotaped encounter.

At one point, Jane Doe -- as the brunet 19-year-old is being called in the Santa Ana courtroom -- turned to the judge for help, saying the aggressive questioning had become too much.

“It is ridiculous. I am getting -- I am so confused,” she said to Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno, her hand over the witness-stand microphone. “It’s confusing me so much; I’m getting frustrated.”

The woman is the star witness in a case against three young men, including the son of former Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, who are standing trial for the second time in a gang-rape case that has captured widespread media attention.

The defendants, Gregory Haidl, now 19, and Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner, both 20, and Jane Doe lived in Rancho Cucamonga at the time of the incident. Gregory Haidl has since moved to Orange County.

The men, who were all 17 at the time of the incident, are accused of sexually attacking the then 16-year-old girl after she drank 8.5 ounces of gin. She has said she passed out after drinking the alcohol.

Lawyers for the men say Jane Doe was a promiscuous young woman who purposely went to Don Haidl’s Corona del Mar home the night of July 5, 2002, to have sex with the youths and was only feigning unconsciousness.

During questioning Thursday, Jane Doe fought to control her emotions as Haidl attorney Joseph G. Cavallo persisted at asking her to explain the discrepancies between her testimony and her statements -- the questioning broken frequently by objections from the prosecutor.

“Does that mean you might have consented but don’t remember?” he asked.

“No, because I would not consent to such acts,” she replied. He asked her a similar question, and she turned to the judge for support. He ordered a break.

As the jury returned, Jane Doe closed her eyes for a few seconds, inhaled, then slowly exhaled. Cavallo resumed his questioning.

“Do you know how you could sit there under penalty of perjury and tell us that you didn’t give permission and you don’t have a memory of the event?” he asked.

At an earlier point, as the attorneys huddled in the judge’s chambers, Jane Doe stared at her court-appointed advocate. “This is so frustrating,” she mouthed.

Attorneys for the defendants are trying, as they did in the first trial, to highlight apparent contradictions in the woman’s statements.

Cavallo reminded Jane Doe of two prior police interviews as well as the first trial, which ended last summer after jurors deadlocked. On Thursday, she admitted either lying about or forgetting how often she had had consensual sex with Spann before the alleged rape, how much she drank at previous parties and that she had once swum nude with Nachreiner.

The defendants are accused of having sex with her and raping her with various objects, including a pool cue, a cigarette and a bottle, early on July 6, 2002. Since the incident, Donald Haidl has resigned from his post. Gregory Haidl was jailed for the duration of the retrial after brushes with the law, including being charged with statutory rape of another teenager. And Jane Doe was charged with possession for sale of methamphetamine.

Since the retrial started this week, other participants have had issues. One juror asked to be excused, saying he felt “pressure” because his boss, a Los Angeles County supervisor, had received campaign contributions from the elder Haidl. Briseno approved the request. On Monday, the judge halted Cavallo’s opening statement after the lawyer improperly mentioned Jane Doe’s sexual history and drug use.

After court Thursday, Cavallo defended his hard-hitting questioning of Jane Doe. He said members of the prior jury had told him he “wasn’t aggressive enough with her the first time.”

On Thursday, Cavallo pressed Jane Doe on her statement that she first realized something was wrong later on the morning of the incident when she undressed to shower and her bra fell out of her jeans.

She had testified that earlier that morning she urinated outside her car, then told Cavallo she didn’t notice the bra because she was too confused to pull down her pants.

As Cavallo pushed for a better explanation, Jane Doe started to cry. He approached her and handed her a tissue. She ignored it.

“I’m OK, thank you,” she said.

The judge called for a break, and Jane Doe left the stand, her ragged breathing echoing through the courtroom.

Outside court, Cavallo said her tears were fake. “She broke down because she got caught and she knew she was getting cornered. She needed a timeout to get out of a jam.”

The prosecutor, Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Chuck Middleton, objected multiple times over Cavallo’s statements to Jane Doe, including, “The fact of the matter is, when you’re involved in sex with an individual, you can’t stop yourself. Isn’t that true?” and “You feel good saying you don’t remember something, don’t you?”

Middleton said outside court that he hoped Cavallo’s questioning wouldn’t confuse the jurors.

“She doesn’t have to have the memory of something to know she wouldn’t have consented to it,” he said.

The video of the incident, made by Gregory Haidl, will probably be shown in court in about two weeks, the prosecution says. The trial will not be in session next week because of a juror’s vacation.