Haidl’s Bail Terms to Be Tightened

A judge said Tuesday that he would place several new restrictions on an Orange County assistant sheriff’s son who has been accused of having sex with a minor while awaiting retrial on a 2002 gang-rape case.

Prosecutors had asked Judge Francisco P. Briseno to revoke bail and put Gregory Haidl, 19, behind bars after the young man’s latest brush with the law. The judge declined but instead assumed the role of tough-love parent, proposing conditions that include curfews, drug testing and a prohibition against leaving the county.

Also, the judge said, no more contact with underage girls.

“It doesn’t appear that he’s a quick learner,” Briseno said. “I don’t mean to put him down in public ... but his behavior seems to indicate a pattern.”

The judge said he also planned to require that Haidl live with only one of his divorced parents, surrender his passport to his lawyer and stop hanging out with certain friends.

If Haidl violated any of the new conditions, which will be formally imposed Thursday, he would be jailed until the gang-rape trial is over. Haidl and two other young men are accused of sexually assaulting a young woman who was 16 at the time, a videotaped incident in which she appeared to be unconscious from drugs or alcohol.

Since his arrest in July 2002 in that case, Haidl has had four run-ins with the law.

The first occurred last fall, when a sheriff’s deputy found a bag of marijuana in a car in which he and two other teens had been traveling. In March this year, Haidl and 12 skateboarding friends were arrested after allegedly trespassing at a boarded-up restaurant. In May, a week after the first trial started, deputies released him with a warning after detaining him on suspicion of trespassing and vandalism at a condo complex where he was skateboarding.

The only incident that resulted in criminal charges occurred in mid-July, when deputies responding to a call about noise at a San Clemente house found that Haidl had allegedly been having sex with a 16-year-old girl. He will be arraigned Thursday on the misdemeanor count of unlawful sex.

The gang-rape case was declared a mistrial in June after a jury deadlocked with most in favor of acquittal on nearly every count. The retrial is set to start in two months.

Haidl’s lawyer, Pete Scalisi, said after Tuesday’s hourlong hearing in Santa Ana that the judge’s decision was wise and that his client would have no trouble following the new rules. “He’ll live up to them,” Scalisi said. “He welcomes these restrictions.”

Although disappointed that Haidl wasn’t taken into custody, a prosecution spokeswoman said the conditions show that the judge recognizes that Haidl is a threat to the community, especially to girls.

“To revoke somebody’s bail is sort of a last resort,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Kang Schroeder. “What the court is saying is: This is his last chance.”

Haidl sat stone-faced in court as the judge proposed the restrictions, only appearing to flinch when Briseno suggested that he not leave the county.

Life for Haidl is difficult in the “pressure-cooker” of Orange County, Scalisi said, where people recognize him, looky-loos often drive by his divorced parents’ homes and death threats are common. Three weeks ago, a man called the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and threatened to burn down the home of his father, Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, in Corona del Mar, the lawyer said. The house, where the alleged 2002 rape took place, has since been put up for sale.

“It’s hard to live there and have a normal life,” Scalisi said. “They just couldn’t stand the notoriety anymore.”

The judge said that in proposing the changes to Haidl’s bail conditions, he considered the similarities among his brushes with the law.

“While Mr. Haidl’s ability or desire to show up in court isn’t in question at this point, his potential threat to public safety is,” Briseno said.

Legal analyst Laurie L. Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Loyola Law School, said the judge has shown inordinate patience in dealing with Haidl.

“Haidl would be a fool to test the judge now,” she said. “He’s lucky to get one more try.”