Jury deliberations begin in rape case

Marisa O’Neil

The fate of three men, accused of gang-raping a 16-year-old girl when

they were teenagers, lies in the hands of a jury for the second time

in a year.

A jury of eight men and four women must now decide if Greg Haidl,

Kyle Nachreiner and Keith Spann, all 17 at the time, took advantage

of the girl after she passed out from drinking or, as the defense

claims, if she willingly participated. A jury last year could not

reach a verdict in the case, and Judge Francisco Briseno declared a

mistrial.

A key piece of evidence in the case is a videotape the defendants

made of the July 2002 incident. Attorneys for both sides claim it

proves their cases.

Jurors watched the tape last month and again watched the 21-minute

segment of the tape Thursday morning during closing arguments, as

Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Chuck Middleton provided his own

commentary.

“Look at her body,” he told jurors as they watched. “Tell me [the

defendants] don’t understand that they have a 125-pound wet noodle on

their hands right there.”

Prosecutors claim the tape shows the defendants gang-raping an

unconscious Jane Doe -- as she is called in court. Defense attorneys

say Doe makes movements on the tape that show she was conscious and

could have said “no” if she had wanted.

The tape has not been shown to courtroom observers.

“Throughout the tape, there are numerous instances where her

conduct is voluntary and she is receptive,” Peter Morreale, Spann’s

attorney, told jurors Thursday.

Middleton said that the graphic videotape was “the most outrageous

thing I think anyone on this jury’s ever seen.”

“If this were all an act and Jane Doe wanted to be the porn star

the defense would like you to believe, that means that it took only

one take for Jane Doe to do an Academy Award-winning job of

pretending to be unconscious,” Middleton said.

As in the first trial, defense attorneys attacked the credibility

of the alleged victim, painting her as a lying, drinking, promiscuous

girl who enjoyed being videotaped while having sex. They continued

that approach during the second trial, pointing out inconsistencies

in her story and bringing up her drinking and sexual behavior with

the three defendants before the night in question.

The night before the alleged assault, Doe and her friends came

from their Rancho Cucamonga homes to party with the defendants. On

each night, the parties took place at the Corona del Mar home of

Haidl’s father, former Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl.

The defense wanted jurors to see Doe as “the worst person in the

world,” Middleton said.

He told them that the charges are not about her behavior but what

the defendants allegedly did to her.

Morreale rebuked Middleton’s statement to jurors Wednesday that

the defendants took Doe’s humanity and used her as a sex object.

“They took her humanity?” Morreale said. “She went down there,

sought out my client, sought out young Mr. Nachreiner, sought out

young Mr. Haidl. What about them?”

The defendants face up to 23 years in prison if convicted.

The jury has today off. They will resume deliberations Monday.

* 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.