Lessons still to be learned from gang-rape trial

The district attorney’s success in prosecuting the gang-rape case of

Greg Haidl, Kyle Nachreiner and Keith Spann can be linked to August

of last year.

That was when the prosecutors refiled the case in a pared-down

version that left intact only nine of the original 24 charges, many

of which the jurors in the first trial had voted 11-1 for acquittal.

The results of the second trial are stark in comparison to the

first trial.

In the first trial, the jurors deadlocked on all counts, and many

were left wondering if it would be impossible to convict the young

men, who had purportedly gang raped a young woman, known at the trial

as Jane Doe, at the Corona del Mar home of former Assistant Sheriff

Don Haidl, Greg Haidl’s father.

But trial No. 2 dispelled that notion as all three defendants were

convicted of six counts of sexual penetration by intoxication, though

jurors did deadlock again on the three other charges, the most

serious being rape by intoxication against Haidl and Spann.

While the district attorney can certainly point to success in the

second trial, the lessons to be learned by the failures of the

prosecution and defense are clear.

The zeal by the prosecution to bring an overabundance of charges

was clearly rejected by both juries.

That alone should send a message to the district attorney’s office

that prosecutors should not be tempted to weigh down the scales of

justice disproportionately, even when they have evidence like a

videotape of the reputed crime scene in their possession.

Then there is the story of Joseph Cavallo.

The flamboyant and raucous attorney for Greg Haidl was much

maligned for his treatment of Jane Doe on the stand and his

blistering and scathing descriptions of her and family.

After the mistrial in trial No. 1, who could argue against his

tactics if he ultimately succeeded in getting his client acquitted?

With trial No. 2 having a different ending, we have to wonder if

those same tactics didn’t wear thin on the jurors and affect his

client adversely.

If that’s true, we can only hope, in the name of common decency,

that Cavallo was taught that lesson.

Whatever is thought of Jane Doe and the defendants, the reality is

there are no winners in this trial.

“It’s extremely disappointing -- beyond words,” Nachreiner’s

attorney John Barnett told our reporter after the second trial ended.

“It’s been tragedy for everyone: Jane Doe, these boys, their

families.”

We can’t say it any better than that.