D.A. Requests a 12-Year Prison Term for Haidl

The Orange County district attorney’s office has recommended 12 years in prison for Gregory Haidl, the son of a former assistant sheriff and one of three young men convicted of sexually assaulting an intoxicated 16-year-old girl, according to a source close to the case.

In papers filed under seal with the court this week, prosecutors’ recommendations for the other two were 10 years for Kyle Nachreiner and six years for Keith Spann.

The three, teenagers at the time of the incident, will appear before Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno for sentencing Friday. They are being held in Orange County Jail. Haidl is now 20, Nachreiner and Spann, 21.

Briseno has full discretion on sentencing and will decide whether the defendants receive probation or prison terms.

In January, a probation report, which has not been released publicly but whose conclusions were discussed in court, recommended state prison for the three men. Their attorneys had argued that the defendants should receive probation or be sent to the California Youth Authority. Each defendant has a different maximum sentence possible, ranging from 14 years for Spann to 18 years for Haidl.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Chuck Middleton, who is handling the case, declined to comment Tuesday. John Barnett, Nachreiner’s lawyer, also declined to comment. Attorneys for Haidl and Spann could not be reached.

A videotape of the crime -- shown to the jury but never made public -- along with sordid details of teen sex drew national attention to the July 2002 crime, which took place at the Corona del Mar home of former Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, Gregory Haidl’s father.

The case also gained notoriety because of the defense’s efforts to paint the victim as a would-be porn star who pretended to be unconscious in the video, and because of Gregory Haidl’s other brushes with the law. In August 2004, prosecutors charged Haidl with having unlawful sex with a second underage girl. In addition, the Newport Beach police chief said that then-Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo had appeared to persuade Don Haidl not to let his son talk to detectives.

The first trial ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked. The jury was leaning toward acquittal on nearly all counts.

The three were convicted a year ago after a second trial, though jurors did acquit them on several counts. Haidl, Nachreiner and Spann were convicted of sexually assaulting the girl using a bottle, pool cue and cigarette.

A videotape of the attack on a pool table was given to police by a young woman who found it at a friend’s rented beach house. She feared that the unconscious woman was dead.

The prosecutor’s prison recommendations didn’t seem unusual, said Jeremy Miller, a law professor of Chapman University in Orange.

“This may be a case where the sentence is long enough where they feel a sting, but short enough to stand up to an appeal,” he said. Defendants usually are eligible for parole after serving half their sentences in prison, Miller said.