Rape-trial arguments should close today

Deepa Bharath

A 21-minute videotape of an alleged gang rape not only captures the

incident in lurid detail but acts almost like a guide for charges

filed against the defendants, the prosecutor in a high-profile case

involving the son of an Orange County assistant sheriff said during

closing arguments Monday.

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

Nachreiner and Keith Spann are accused of raping an unconscious

16-year-old girl and sexually assaulting her with various objects as

she lay on a pool table in the garage of the Haidls’ Corona del Mar

home.

If convicted of all 24 counts, the three teenagers could face up

to 55 years and four months in state prison. The defense has

consistently maintained that the acts were consensual and that the

girl was a willing participant who was conscious and cooperative

during the incident.

On Monday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Hess put up still pictures from

the videotape, which jurors have had the opportunity to see several

times during the trial, on a large television screen. The prosecutor

walked jurors through the charges as he matched each felony count

with a still image on screen.

Hess said the boys’ actions showed that the girl, identified only

as Jane Doe, is “not a willing sex partner.”

“These are little boys pulling the wings off of a butterfly,” he

said. “They’re doing it because they can and because they can get

away with it.”

The boys were also mugging and posing for the camera as they

celebrated their actions, he said.

But Greg Haidl’s defense attorney, Joseph Cavallo, said he did not

know where the prosecutor got “the gall to call this girl a little

butterfly.”

“She was no butterfly,” he said. “She’s a betrayer of trust. She

lied to her parents. She cheated on her friends.”

Cavallo said the videotape heavily relied upon by the prosecution

throughout the trial “is a piece of junk.”

“I don’t know how many times it’s been stepped on, spit on and

crushed,” he said.

Cavallo alleged that police officials and the prosecution played a

part in doctoring the video and that the tape played before the jury

was a copy. The defense’s video expert testified that the tape was a

copy, he said. Cavallo also criticized the prosecutor for showing the

tape, submitted into evidence, without the permission of the court to

a new expert witness called to rebut the defense’s expert.

But Judge Franciso Briseno ruled earlier that the prosecution had

not altered the tape in any way and that it was still admissible as

evidence. Defense attorneys also maintain that the tape may have many

missing minutes that could well clear the defendants of the charges.

Hess told the jury there were six crimes that could be seen on the

tape -- rape, oral copulation and penetration by a foreign object,

penetration by force, sexual penetration in concert by force and

assault with a deadly weapon. And the crimes were committed by

intoxication of the alleged victim, he said.

Hess said the defendants’ “brute mentality” was captured on tape

as they assaulted Jane Doe with a Snapple bottle, a fruit juice can,

a lighted cigarette and a pool cue.

“They’re posing and mugging for the camera,” he said. “They

encourage each other, compete with each other to see who can do worse

things to Jane Doe.”

They increased the level of abuse throughout the incident on a

girl who was “too intoxicated to give consent,” Hess said. He said

even if the girl had no injuries, the very act of jamming a pool cue

into a person can be seen as “unlawful application of physical force,

although it causes no bodily injury to the person.”

Prosecution and defense experts differed as to whether the girl

was injured. Nurses who examined Jane Doe said they did notice tears

and cuts, but the defense’s colorectal expert, Marvin Corman, said

the tape of the girl’s exam showed that injuries were caused by the

examining nurses, not the boys.

Nachreiner’s attorney, John Barnett, who made closing arguments on

behalf of his client, asked the jurors to consider the testimony of

neurologist Harris Fisk, who said the girl appeared to be aware of

her surroundings, alert and conscious during the incident.

“You’ve heard the best in the world, and they’ve told you they

have a doubt,” Barnett said, referring to the statements of defense

experts Corman and Fisk.

He said Corman’s testimony was key because the doctor said that

had the girl not cooperated with the defendants during the insertion

of the pool cue, she would’ve suffered massive injuries, which she

did not.

If the jurors believed those experts, Barnett said, they must find

reasonable doubt, which means they must vote not guilty based on that

element of reasonable doubt.

Hess urged jurors to use common sense in reaching a verdict.

“Don’t think about the defendants who are sitting behind me today

with folded arms but the defendants you see on that TV screen,” he

said.

Attorneys are expected to wrap up closing arguments 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.