Attorney still not done with ‘Jane Doe’

Lolita Harper

Defense attorneys continued their meticulous cross-examination

Thursday of the victim of an alleged gang rape in a Corona del Mar

home, sifting through pages of transcribed testimony and

minute-by-minute accounts of the weekend in question looking for

inconsistencies.

The victim, referred to as Jane Doe, was on the witness stand from

10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. -- with an hour break for lunch -- during

the first round of cross-examination by Joseph Cavallo, defense

attorney for Greg Haidl.

Haidl, the son of Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, Kyle Nachreiner and

Keith Spann are accused of raping the unconscious 16-year-old girl during a party in the Corona del Mar home of the elder Haidl. All

defendants claim the sex was consensual and deny the rape charges.

Doe, who is now 18, wore a black suit with a light blue sweater

underneath for her third court appearance. The top of her long,

brownish-blond hair was pulled away from her face in two neat

ponytails and she wore a silver necklace. She spoke clearly and

collectedly, with the exception of two instances, when she broke into

tears.

The first was after Cavallo had Doe watch a videotape from June

30, 2002 of her and Spann having sex at a party. Doe said she did not

know she was being filmed.

Cavallo played the footage of the incident, stopping it repeatedly

to point out a variety of camera angles used during the filming. He

called attention to at least six scenes.

Cavallo then played the beginning portion of the night of the

alleged incident, when Doe and the defendants sat on the couch in the

Haidl garage. The defense attorney argued that the camera was placed

directly across from the couch on the pool table, in plain view.

“Is that you?” Cavallo asked.

“I don’t know,” Doe said.

He asked again and she gave the same response. Doe was asked to

walk to the large video monitor, angled away from the audience, and

take a close look.

“Is that you?” Cavallo asked.

“I think so,” Doe said, sniffling.

“How was that filmed?” Cavallo said.

“I have no idea,” she said, unable to hold back the tears.

“I didn’t want to show her the tape, she has been through enough,”

Cavallo said later that day, adding that it was necessary to prove

the camera was not hidden from her.

Doe admitted to consenting to various sexual acts with the boys

before the alleged rape on the pool table. She said Nachreiner tried

to have sex with her in the pool, and though she was there for Spann

and not Nachreiner, she did nothing to stop his advances.

“So you wanted to,” Cavallo asked, in regard to Nachreiner pulling

Doe into the pool with him.

“No,” Doe said.

“But you didn’t stop him,” Cavallo said.

“No,” she answered.

“So, if you didn’t stop him that means you wanted it,” Cavallo

said.

Doe admitted to having sex with Haidl that same night, despite the

fact that his girlfriend was in the next room, and she said she later

had sex with Spann. Cavallo continually referred to previous

statements Doe made to the police and asked her to recount the days

of April 5 and 6, 2002 with painstaking detail.

Cavallo asked about Doe’s usage of the words “conscious” and

“consciousness” during her direct examination on Tuesday, adding that

she had not used such language in her interviews with the police just

after the incident.

“She’s been prepped,” Cavallo said later on Thursday. “Probably

not by the prosecutor but by someone here, maybe her parents.”

After four hours of cross-examination, Cavallo had still not

finished his line of questioning. At 3:30 p.m. Superior Court Judge

Francisco Briseno cut the day short. In one of the few light moments

in court, Briseno also suggested Cavallo’s time was running out.

“How much more time do you need with this witness -- five

minutes?” Briseno asked.

“No,” Cavallo said.

“Four? Three?” Briseno asked and the courtroom broke into

laughter.

Cavallo said he would finish his cross-examination when court

resumed on Tuesday. Other defense attorneys estimated they would each

need about an hour to question Doe.

After Doe and the jury were dismissed, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Hess

asked the judge to make a formal ruling banning the defense, or any

parties working for them, from handing out confidential documents

such as Doe’s medical records. Hess pointed out former district

attorney’s office employee Tori Richards, who is now working as a

public relations representative for the defense, as the culprit.

Richards said she had given out copies of Doe’s medical records

but only with the permission of defense attorney Pete Scalisi. She

agreed to return the documents and stop handing them out.

Scalisi denied giving her permission to disclose the inadmissible

documents.

“Are you kidding, of course not,” he said.

Scalisi and Cavallo both distanced themselves from Richards’ role

on the defense team, saying they did not know “who hired her.”