Depressed teenager to await bail hearing

Marisa O’Neil

Greg Haidl, the 19-year-old son of former Orange County Assistant

Sheriff Don Haidl, will remain hospitalized for depression until a

hearing to decide if he can remain free on bail while awaiting

retrial in a gang rape case.

Defense attorneys for Greg Haidl met with prosecutors Friday

afternoon to discuss how to proceed after his latest brush with the

law, an allegedly alcohol-related crash on Oct. 30. Orange County

Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno set a Nov. 15 hearing to

decide if Greg Haidl violated the restrictions placed on his bail in

August.

Greg Haidl was hospitalized for depression the day after the

accident, defense attorney Pete Scalisi said. On Friday, Briseno

ordered him to stay in the hospital and not drive until he appears at

the next hearing.

“It’s very suspicious that he comes up with this when he’s right

on the verge of going back into jail,” said Chuck Middleton, Orange

County chief assistant district attorney. “He knows how close he is

to incarceration, and all of a sudden has to commit himself to a

mental hospital. I’d be depressed too.”

Greg Haidl is free on $100,000 bail while awaiting retrial on

charges that he, Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner gang-raped an

allegedly unconscious 16-year-old girl in Don Haidl’s Corona del Mar

home in 2002. The incident was videotaped. Briseno declared a

mistrial in June after a jury deadlocked.

After a series of run-ins with police during the first trial and

then charges he had sex with another 16-year-old girl, Briseno put

conditions on Greg Haidl’s bail.

One of those restrictions includes not drinking any alcohol. A

preliminary alcohol screening test taken after Saturday’s accident in

Santa Ana showed a blood alcohol level of .02%, still legal to drive

but a violation of his bail, Middleton said.

Other factors, like eating spicy food, can give false positive

readings on such tests, Scalisi said. Greg Haidl had not been

drinking but had just eaten a spicy Indian meal, Scalisi said.

“It’s our position that he did not violate the conditions of his

bail,” Scalisi said.

Another condition is that he be at his father’s Corona del Mar

home by 11 p.m., making prosecutors question why he was in Santa Ana

at 10:30 p.m., when the accident was reported.

The area where the accident occurred -- on Bristol Street a few

blocks south of First Street -- is an “infamous drug-buying area,”

Middleton said. But Greg Haidl’s attorneys said he simply got lost on

his way home from Huntington Beach.

On Monday, defense attorney Joseph Cavallo said that doctors

worried Greg Haidl might try to harm himself. He’s now doing better

than he was when he first checked into the hospital, but is still on

medication and under a doctor’s care, Scalisi said.

Suicidal or not, Middleton said, Greg Haidl should be taken off

the street.

“It’s his behavior that’s getting him in trouble,” Middleton said.

“We’re trying to protect the community.”

Spann and Nachreiner, both 19, have not had the same problem Greg

Haidl has had staying out of trouble while awaiting the scheduled

Jan. 31 retrial.

“The other ones know they’re in trouble,” Middleton said. “[Greg]

Haidl just wonders when all this is going to stop, so he can get on

with his life.”