Witnesses contradict girl in rape trial

Deepa Bharath

Former friends of a girl accusing three teenagers of gang-raping her

testified in court on Wednesday that the girl called herself a “porn

star” and had sex with one of the defendants in a swimming pool

minutes after meeting him.

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

Nachreiner and Keith Spann are charged with raping the unconscious

girl, then 16, and assaulting her with various objects as she lay on

a pool table in the garage of the Haidls’ Corona del Mar home.

Prosecutors showed jurors the 20-minute videotape, which they say the

defendants made, capturing the whole incident in lurid detail.

Two of the girl’s former friends, who testified for the defense on

Wednesday, made statements that were in stark contrast to what the

girl herself said over the last week when she took the stand.

Jenna Stroh, who said she was one of the girl’s best friends at

the time of the alleged rape, told the court that on July 4, 2002,

she, Melissa Matsumoto, Crystal Davis and the girl, known only as

“Jane Doe” during the trial, had gone to “hang out” at Haidl’s Corona

del Mar home.

The girls had planned to stay overnight at the Haidl home that

July 4, Stroh said.

“We had all lied to our parents about where we were going,” she

said with a smile.

At the small party, Stroh said, Jane Doe drank beer and other

drinks before they all watched a tape of her having sex with Spann,

filmed June 30, 2002. The girl appeared to be happy and was laughing

when she saw the tape, Stroh said.

“She said something like ‘Look at me, we’re porn stars,’” she

said. “She said it in a joking but serious kind of way.”

The girl, who testified for almost a week, had said that she could

barely watch 10 seconds of that sex tape and that she turned away,

disgusted. She had also said that she told Haidl that the tape was

“gross” and that she wanted him to erase it.

But both Stroh and Matsumoto testified that their friend seemed

proud of the tape.

Both girls also testified that the girl, on June 30, had also

asked them to photograph her having sex with Spann. Matsumoto said

she barged into the room with Stroh and another boy and snapped the

picture her friend had asked her to take.

Matsumoto also said the girl took a few swigs out of a bottle of

Bombay gin as soon as they reached the Haidl home on July 4. That was

the drink the defendants say they gave her the night of the alleged

incident. The girl testified that the foul-tasting, bluish-green

drink knocked her out and made her sick.

Both girls said they helped their friend take off her jeans in the

swimming pool the night of July 4. Shortly after that, they saw the

girl and Nachreiner passionately kiss and have sex in the pool, they

said.

The girl testified that she did not have sex with Nachreiner and

that she kept pushing him off. She also said Stroh and Matsumoto

rescued her from Nachreiner’s advances and got her out of the pool.

But her friends said she not only voluntarily jumped into the pool

and had sex with Nachreiner, but also told them after she got out of

the pool: “Don’t let me have sex with anyone else except Keith.”

The girl had gone to Stroh’s house the morning of July 6 to “clean

up and take a shower,” Stroh said.

“She didn’t look good,” she said. “She had throw-up on her hair

and on her clothes.”

Stroh said her friend remembered that she had sex with the boys

the previous night.

“She told me ‘I don’t know what I did, but I know I had sex with

the three boys,’” she said.

Prosecutor Dan Hess asked Stroh why she hadn’t told Newport Beach

police or the defense’s investigator, John Warren, about the girl

telling her that she had sex with all three boys the night of July 5.

“I didn’t tell the police,” she said. “But I did tell John Warren.

I told him because that’s what she told me that day, and that’s the

truth.”

Stroh also said the girl told her she wasn’t sore or in pain.

Less than a month after the alleged incident, the girl and her

friends were in Newport Beach when Jane Doe asked Stroh to drive by

the Haidl residence, Stroh said.

“She said she needed closure,” she said. “She started to cry when

we drove by there.”

Matsumoto testified that the girl also laughed about having sex

with Greg Haidl the night of July 4. Haidl was then dating Davis. The

girl brought up the subject after they dropped off Davis the morning

of July 5, Matsumoto said.

“She said, ‘If I got pregnant by Greg I’d be so rich, I won’t have

to worry about money again,’” Matsumoto said.

Both girls said they gradually lost touch with their friend, but

that they still love her and would want to be friends with her again.

Both said they never considered her an “outcast” or ostracized her in

the days after the incident.

Matsumoto said she got a text page on her cellphone as recently as

July 2003 from the girl saying she missed hanging out with Matsumoto

and asking if she wanted to go down to the beach sometime.

Matsumoto and Stroh also said they met with their friend at

Chili’s days after the incident when all of them discussed it. She

said the girl was cavalier about the whole incident, which had become

public and high-profile by then.

Matsumoto told the court what the girl told her and the other

girls at Chili’s that day: “She said, ‘I don’t know why they would

have drugged me. I’d have done it anyways.’”

The defense is expected to continue with their witnesses today.

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

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.