No more second chances for Haidl

Just what are we to do with Gregory Haidl?

The 19-year-old son of former Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don

Haidl is again facing jail time after yet another public incident

that has some wondering whether he is a threat to himself and others.

For now, the teen is sitting in a psychiatric hospital, reportedly

being treated for depression.

Regardless of what some believe about Haidl, who with two friends

faces a second trial for allegedly gang-raping a 16-year-old girl at

his father’s Corona del Mar home in July 2002, the evidence is clear

his days of freedom are most likely numbered.

Judge Francisco Briseno is scheduled to decide at a hearing on

Monday whether the young man will continue to be free on bail as he

waits the second trial in January. The first trial deadlocked and was

declared a mistrial in June.

Since then, the younger Haidl has had two well-publicized

encounters with authorities, and that doesn’t include two others that

happened prior to his first trial.

In August, the teen was picked up by police at a party in San

Clemente and charged by prosecutors with statutory rape of a

16-year-old girl.

Then on Oct. 30, he was involved in an auto accident at 10:30 p.m.

in Santa Ana, just a half-hour before his court-imposed curfew was to

end.

Authorities discovered he had a blood alcohol level of .02% at the

time of the accident. While that is below the legal limit for driving

(for people over 21), another court-imposed sanction was that he

refrain from using alcohol.

When Briseno signed the strict provisions of Haidl’s freedom after

the August incident, he noted that it had called for “no mercy”

should the teen violate any of the restrictions.

Despite what his attorneys are now arguing -- that he ate spicy

food or was using medication -- the fact that he had alcohol in his

system is pretty clear evidence that rules mean very little to

Gregory Haidl.

So again, what are we to do with him?

It’s evident to us that he is a young man who needs help but more

importantly needs to be taken off the streets.

Maybe keeping him in custody is best for him right now until the

legal questions surrounding him are answered.

Briseno will be asked by defense attorneys to give him another

chance.

But we just don’t see any other choice for the judge than to keep

the public, and Haidl himself, safe from his reckless actions.