MADD rewards police who fight drunken driving...

MADD rewards police who fight drunken driving

Mothers Against Drunk Driving on Wednesday recognized four Costa

Mesa police officers for their work keeping intoxicated drivers off

the streets.

Officer Dennis Dickens received the Thin Blue Line Award, given to

officers killed or injured by a drunken driver. Dickens was seriously

injured last year when he was struck by a drunken driver while riding

his motorcycle.

Three other Costa Mesa officers received the organization’s 2005

Century Awards, given to those who make at least 100 arrests of

drunken drivers.

Officer Tony Yannizzi received his fifth Century Award, recording

105 such arrests in 2004.

Officer Dan Miles took home his third award, making 109 arrests of

drunken drivers. Officer Scott Dibble got his first Century Award

with 114 arrests last year.

The awards lunch took place Wednesday at the Richard Nixon Library

and Birthplace in Yorba Linda. In all, 27 officers and 14 prosecutors

received awards.

Pre-sentencing hearing in sex-assault trial is Friday

A pre-sentencing hearing will be held Friday to determine if three

men, convicted of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl when they

were teenagers, can be sentenced as adults.

Greg Haidl, the 19-year-old son of a former assistant sheriff, and

20-year-old Rancho Cucamonga residents Kyle Nachreiner and Keith

Spann were convicted last month on multiple counts of penetration

with a foreign object. A jury deadlocked on rape by intoxication and

assault with a deadly weapons charges against the three.

Each faces maximum sentences of more than a dozen years in prison.

The three were tried as adults. But because they were all 17 at

the time of the 2002 incident, they could be sentenced as juveniles.

Prosecutors filed the motion requesting a fitness report on the

defendants. Friday’s brief hearing will take place in the courtroom

of Judge Francisco Briseno, who presided over the trial and one in

2004 that ended in a mistrial.

The three defendants were accused of gang-raping the 16-year-old

girl after she passed out from drinking too much. The videotaped

incident took place in the Corona del Mar home of Haidl’s father Don

Haidl, who was an Orange County Assistant Sheriff at the time but has

since resigned.

Sobriety checkpoint

slated for Saturday night

Costa Mesa police will conduct a sobriety checkpoint Saturday

night.

The checkpoint will take place from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. on East 17th

Street and Westminster Avenue, police said.

It is funded by a grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety.