Sexual assault lawsuit settled

A confidential settlement was reached Friday in the case of a young woman who was unconscious during a videotaped sexual assault by several attackers, including the son of a then-Orange County assistant sheriff.

“We have reached a tentative agreement,” said Sheldon Lodmer, an attorney for the woman identified as Jane Doe, who was 16 at the time of the July 2002 assault.

The settlement, if approved by a judge, would close another chapter in the case that drew national attention and involved Gregory Haidl, son of Donald Haidl -- who later resigned as assistant sheriff -- and two other young men.

The younger Haidl video- recorded himself at his father’s Corona del Mar home as he and his friends performed sex acts on the girl with a variety of objects, including a lighted cigarette, a pool cue and a bottle.

Lodmer said he was prohibited from revealing any details of the settlement.

He said he hopes to have it approved by Orange County Superior Court Judge Stephen J. Sundvold soon, possibly within a week.

Haidl, Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner, all 22, are serving six-year prison terms.

The victim, a Rancho Cucamonga woman now 21, also named Haidl’s parents and stepmother in her 2005 lawsuit that sought unspecified damages for emotional distress, invasion of privacy, sexual assault and battery.

The victim also had named Haidl’s attorney, Joseph G. Cavallo, and two defense investigators in her suit, saying their aggressive pretrial investigation of her and her family crossed a line.

But a judge ruled that she could not sue over the defense team’s tactics. The ruling removed Cavallo and the investigators from the lawsuit.

According to the victim, Cavallo and the investigators staked out her Rancho Cucamonga house, stalked her and went through her trash. She said that investigators improperly obtained her medical records and cornered her in a parking lot, snapping pictures of her.

After Haidl and his co- defendants were arrested, Haidl’s mother posted fliers in Jane Doe’s neighborhood identifying her as the accuser.

After he videotaped himself and his friends, Haidl left the tape with acquaintances at a Newport Beach summer rental house. A renter’s girlfriend, who thought the girl in the footage was dead, passed the tape to a police officer.

The first prosecution ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked, leaning toward acquittal on nearly all counts.

The three were later convicted of sexual assault in a second trial, though jurors did acquit them on several other counts.

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david.reyes@latimes.com