An Issue of Justice, Not Family Connections

Re “A High-Placed Father With Son in Trouble,” April 26: If I knew Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl personally, I would certainly commiserate with him. I can easily understand what must be going through his mind concerning his son and the penalty that might await him. I know he feels a great responsibility and fears for his son’s future. But I don’t know him and so can write this.

Haidl’s son is accused of committing an act that violates common decency as well as the person of another human being. If he is convicted, there may be extenuating circumstances, and I am sure that a jury will consider them. However, Haidl’s position has nothing to do with the actions of which his son is accused. Nor should it have any influence on the eventual outcome.

Robert A. Winners

Glendale

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It is true that Haidl’s son’s case “wouldn’t be the media circus it is” without him, but then again, the son wouldn’t be getting the white-glove treatment he has gotten, either. The reality is that no one forced Haidl’s son to do what he did on that video, and so any ramifications resulting from his actions and any other thoughtless and illegal acts are his own doing.

Fighting for his life may be Haidl’s top priority, but for the rest of us in a civilized society, he must understand that justice is our priority.

Jeannie W. Kench

Orange

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If Haidl Jr. is really a “good kid” interested in assuaging his overwhelming “guilt,” he would have pleaded guilty and faced the music instead of re-victimizing “that poor girl,” as his disingenuous father described her, with spurious innuendo and hearsay, courtesy of his high-priced legal pit bulls.

We are facing a moral crisis in our country, but it has nothing to do with the empty Christian platitudes that usually come blaring out of Orange County. It is about taking personal responsibility for the “stupid, terrible situations” that we sometimes find ourselves in -- and doing the right thing in real time, not when it suits an agenda, which is exactly what this public-relations article and the Haidls have done.

Andrew Beutmueller

Los Angeles