‘Disorder’ column unfair and doesn’t ‘fit’

Peggy Haidl

Daily Pilot contributor Maxine Cohen has made a lot of very public

assumptions about Greg Haidl, and about his father, Don Haidl, in her

Nov. 19 Community Commentary, “Signs of personality disorder fit.”

Sadly, she has derived all of her information from newspaper

articles.

She has never met my brother, Don Haidl, former Orange County

assistant sheriff. She knows nothing about his personal life, his

history, his dedication to his family, his work ethic or his lifelong

generosity of helping others, yet she chose to describe him as a

father, “ ... absent, not paying attention, not involved, ... “ and

paying attention “just with his checkbook.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. In reading the article,

one is led to many conclusions that are completely false and

inaccurate. She goes on to describe Greg as having a specific

personality disorder. Again, she has never met Greg, has no access to

his present condition, his medical history, family background,

relationships with his peers, school records, and has certainly never

conducted any therapy sessions with him. Making a diagnosis of a

personality disorder requires carefully detailed psychiatric history

and the use of rigorous diagnostic criteria. Cohen has none of this

information available to her.

How dare she make these judgments. As a professionally licensed

marriage and family therapist, she should know better than most the

criteria in diagnosing any individual.

Her “diagnosis” is based on Greg, in her own words, “being tried

for a gang-rape” and “not to mention the run-ins with authorities

prior to that.” She omits the word “alleged” in her description of

the gang-rape and never mentions the outcome of the first trial. Yes,

he was tried, and the jury, the only courtroom observers viewing the

tape and hearing all the evidence presented on both sides, voted 11-1

not guilty on the most serious charges, and the majority for

acquittal on the other charges.

As for the subsequent “run-ins prior to that,” prior to this

incident Greg was never in trouble with law enforcement one day of

his life, contrary to what one is led to believe by Cohen.

After the alleged incident, yes, Greg was under intense scrutiny

and the later incidents generated media coverage. Once again, they

are alleged. There have been no convictions and they all involve

behavior typical of many teenagers, which for any other teenager,

would have likely been dealt with privately and without the added

pressure of full press coverage.

Unfortunately, she qualifies her “opinions” by saying that she is

a marriage and family therapist, and this is followed up by

mentioning her business at the end of the article. This tends to lend

more weight to her opinions, which is not only unfair to the parties

involved, but unprofessional and highly unethical. Further, since

there is a retrial pending, this type of commentary is very

prejudicial to the defense and creates an unnecessary bias in the

minds of potential jurors. As a licensed therapist, she has shown a

very serious lack of judgment and invasion of privacy.

By nature, therapists are meant to help and heal. Her personal

attacks on Don Haidl and his son Greg based purely on speculation are

irresponsible and highly unethical. Under the guise of a therapist,

Cohen is using her license to promote her own personal bias and her

business. In doing so, she has only caused further pain to our

family. Gregory Haidl, 19 years old, has been subjected to endless

scrutiny, criticism and negative reporting unprecedented in the

Orange County press, beginning just days after his 17th birthday.

After facing one trial where the majority of the jury found him

not guilty, and having never been convicted of a crime, he is now

sitting in an isolated jail cell, as he will be throughout the

upcoming holidays. I don’t know many adults who could withstand this

pressure. Imagine it through the eyes of a teenager.

* PEGGY HAIDL is a resident of Corona del Mar. She is Don Haidl’s

sister and vice president of the Orange County Fair Board and a

former Commissioner of the Los Angeles County Department of Public

Social Services.