Lawyer wants judge out, rape case dropped

Marisa O’Neil

A defense attorney for 19-year-old Greg Haidl, accused in two

separate rape cases, is asking for a judge to recuse himself and for

one of the cases be thrown out because of an allegedly improper

arrest.

Following a statutory rape hearing for Greg Haidl, son of Orange

County Asst. Sheriff Don Haidl, in a South County courthouse Friday,

defense attorney Joe Cavallo asked Orange County Superior Court Judge

Luis Rodriguez to step down from the case for signing a search

warrant to obtain the DNA of the underage girl. The 16-year-old girl -- who admitted to having sex with Greg Haidl while he was out on

bail on charges that he and two other boys gang-raped an unconscious

16-year-old girl in July 2002 -- filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday

against Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and others in

connection with the warrant.

Rodriguez was not named in the suit.

“The judge should be recused,” Cavallo said. “He’s now a potential

witness in a federal case.”

Cavallo said he would file the motion on Monday to remove

Rodriguez from the statutory rape case against Greg Haidl. He will

also file a motion to dismiss the case because officers did not read

Greg Haidl his Miranda rights at the time of that arrest, Cavallo

said.

“It’s unconscionable for law enforcement to conduct themselves

like that,” he said. “He was not read his rights. He was detained for

six hours.”

He was arrested on July 13 after sheriff’s deputies were called to

a San Clemente home to investigate a barking dog. When they showed

up, Greg Haidl hid in the back yard of the house, where he and other

teenagers were having a party, according to court documents.

A girl -- known in court documents as Jane Doe No. 2 -- who was

dog sitting at the house, admitted to having consensual sex with

Haidl and refused to press charges. Haidl is free on $100,000 bail on

that case and on another $100,000 bail after a jury deadlocked on the

gang-rape charges that he and 19-year-olds Kyle Nachreiner and Keith

Spann face.

That case is set to be retried starting in October.

Jane Doe No. 2 met Greg Haidl at a party held by his father the

night Judge Francisco Briseno declared a mistrial, prosecutors said.

Jane Doe. No. 2’s attorney, Adam Stull, filed the lawsuit against

the district attorney’s office on Thursday, alleging they illegally

obtained a search warrant to get her DNA for evidence. The girl does

not want to get involved in the case and did not want to supply a DNA

sample, said Stull, who claims her civil rights were violated.

UC Irvine criminology professor William Thompson, an attorney and

DNA expert who served on O.J. Simpson’s defense team, said that’s a

gray area.

“Technology has brought us into a new and unclear area,” he said.

If Jane Doe No. 2 was in possession of documents that would be

evidence in a case, prosecutors could obtain a subpoena or warrant

for them. And some judges have ruled that DNA from discarded

cigarette butts or soda cans is admissible -- essentially abandoned

property.

But using a warrant to get DNA from an unwilling party opens up

other questions, Thompson said.

“The big, unanswered legal question here is how the government is

going to treat people’s DNA,” he said.

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

reached at (949) 574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.

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