Jail time looks likely for troubled teen

Marisa O’Neil

A judge on Monday revoked the bail of Greg Haidl, a move that could

send the 19-year-old to jail for at least two months while he awaits

a retrial on charges he and two friends gang-raped an unconscious

girl.

Prosecutors argued that Haidl, son of former Orange County

Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, violated the terms of his $100,000 bail

by drinking alcohol and getting into a traffic collision in Santa Ana

the night of Oct. 30. In August, after Greg Haidl had a series of

run-ins with police, Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco

Briseno put restrictions on his freedom -- including not drinking

alcohol and not breaking any laws -- or he would send him to jail

until the upcoming trial ended.

“Based on the information presented, the defendant on the 30th of

October was in violation of the conditions imposed by the court,”

Briseno said.

Briseno is set to decide today whether Greg Haidl will go to jail

or remain, for now, at a psychiatric facility, where his doctor said

he is being treated for severe depression.

“I’m inclined to rule he be sent to the Orange County Jail on a

forthwith basis,” Briseno said.

Briseno imposed the no-bail status on Greg Haidl, who was

hospitalized with depression the day after the Oct. 30 accident,

according to his attorneys.

“I think the judge feels it’s in Greg’s best interest to be in

custody,” defense attorney Joseph Cavallo said.

Defense attorneys tried to prove during a bail hearing Monday

morning that a machine read a false positive for alcohol when Greg

Haidl blew into it after the Oct. 30 accident. But in an afternoon

hearing asking that he remain in the hospital, his psychiatrist, Dr.

Irwin Rosenfeld, testified that Greg Haidl told him he’d had half a

can of beer at a friend’s house and was trying to overdose on

tranquilizers right before the accident.

He made another unsuccessful suicide attempt with tranquilizers

about two weeks earlier, Rosenfeld said. The drugs were “obtained

through illicit means,” he said.

Greg Haidl did not appear at the hearing despite the judge’s

specific request for his presence. His doctor advised him not to come

because the “pressure of being in the courtroom” and the related

media scrutiny would “exacerbate his condition,” Cavallo said.

The morning’s ruling renewed Greg Haidl’s suicidal thoughts,

Rosenfeld said.

“He received a phone call from his mother telling him the judge

revoked his bail,” Rosenfeld said. “He’s very afraid of going to

jail. He said he’d kill himself before he’d go to jail.”

Greg Haidl and friends Kyle Nachreiner and Keith Spann, all 19,

are accused of gang-raping an allegedly unconscious 16-year-old girl and sexually assaulting her with various objects in July 2002 in Don

Haidl’s Corona del Mar home. The incident was also videotaped.

Briseno declared a mistrial in June after the jury deadlocked.

Since then, Greg Haidl has been free on bail but has had a series of

run-ins with police, including an alleged statutory rape of another

16-year-old girl.

The gang-rape retrial is scheduled to start Jan. 31.

Lead prosecutor Chuck Middleton, chief assistant district attorney

for the county, said Don Haidl’s money has helped his son stay out of

jail until the latest incident. Greg Haidl needs to be kept away from

the public, Middleton said.

“I think he’s gotten a lot of breaks, thanks to the efforts of the

defense,” Middleton said of Greg Haidl. “It’s about time, in my

mind.”

Cavallo, who said his client had not told him about the beer and

tranquilizers he’d consumed, said the judge has been fair to Greg

Haidl.

“Now he needs to take some kind of action to let [Greg Haidl] know

he has to be more responsible,” Cavallo said.

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

reached at (714) 966-4618 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.