Father of ‘Jane Doe’ takes the stand

Deepa Bharath

The father of a girl who prosecutors say was gang-raped by three

teenagers in a Corona del Mar home about two years ago, testified on

Monday that his daughter was distraught when he informed her that a

police detective had told him over the phone that she had been

gang-raped by three boys.

Greg Haidl, son of Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, Kyle

Nachreiner and Keith Spann are accused of raping the girl and

sexually assaulting the girl with various objects at the Haidls’

Spyglass Hill home.

The dad, who remained unidentified to the jury and was subpoenaed

by the defense, said that his daughter, who was 16 years old at the

time, initially seemed uncomfortable when he told her what Newport

Beach Police Det. John Hougan had told him.

“Then she got sick and started to throw up,” he said. “She got

hysterical.”

The man, referred to only as “Jane Doe’s father” responded to most

of the questions posed by Haidl’s defense attorney Joseph Cavallo’s

with: “I don’t remember.”

Cavallo asked him what his daughter told him about the night of

July 5, 2002.

“She remembered very little,” the father said.

Jane Doe testified that she remembered nothing and was slipping in

and out of consciousness after she drank a bluish-green mixed drink

in a Styrofoam cup, which Nachreiner handed to her.

The father also told Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Hess during

cross-examination that his daughter was not in favor of prosecuting

the boys at first because she thought they were her friends. She was

also under “a lot of pressure from her friends,” he said.

“[She and her friends] liked the boys and didn’t think they would

do anything like that to her,” he said.

Four of Jane Doe’s former girlfriends testified for the defense

saying that she lied a lot and that she told them that she would’ve

had sex with all three boy whether or not they drugged her.

The defense also called Jane Doe’s mother to the stand on Monday.

But Cavallo only questioned her for a few minutes and did not delve

into issues about Jane Doe’s honesty or trustworthiness or the

confrontations the defense said she had with her parents in the past.

Cavallo said the other defense attorneys dissuaded him from going

into those areas because they did not want to run the risk of the

mother crying on the witness stand. The defense attorney added that

the father was “hostile and elusive” during his testimony.

Also on Monday, the defense presented Jimmy Rubio, a drug

recognition expert who testified that he couldn’t come to any

conclusion after he watched the 20-minute tape of the alleged

incident made by the defendants about whether the girl was under the

influence of drugs or not. Rubio’s statements contradicted the

testimony of the prosecution’s expert, Trinka Porrata, who said that

the girl’s actions on tape were consistent with someone who was under

the influence of a date rape drug.

Today, the defense is set to call more medical experts and Newport

Beach Police Sgt. Bill Hartford, who is one of the investigators in

this case. The defense may call one or more of the defendants to

testify on Wednesday, Cavallo said.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at [email protected].