Hit-Run Driver Claims Prison Rape, Loses Plea

Despite tearful testimony in which Gary Alan Haw described being raped twice in prison, an Orange County Superior Court judge Friday rejected the hit-and-run driver’s plea to serve his sentence elsewhere.

Haw, who struck and killed a bicyclist in Laguna Hills in 1987, told Judge James K. Turner that he had been sexually assaulted twice during his first 3 months in prison. Haw, 26, said he had been afraid to call for help or report the incidents because his life was threatened.

“They put me in Chino Central and they placed me in a cell with another man just for 1 night,” Haw said, describing his first night in prison. “He raped me and when he got done he urinated on me.”

On Sept. 30, Haw was sentenced to 2 years in state prison for hit-and-run driving and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Haw was driving his father’s 1986 Porsche 911 on Alicia Parkway on Sept. 8, 1987, when he passed a van that had slowed down for bicyclist Jason Klein, 17. Haw stuck Klein, throwing him more that 300 feet and killing him on impact.

Haw, who was 24 at the time, and his father, Ronald Haw, concocted a story that put the senior Haw behind the wheel because the insurance on the car did not cover drivers under 25. According to police reports, the front end of the $80,000 Porsche was shattered in the accident.

However, when officers talked to a witness who identified the younger Haw as the driver, the Haws admitted that they made up the story. Ronald Haw was convicted and sentenced to 1 year in a halfway house in Buena Park.

Gary Haw also testified Friday that both a nurse and a prison doctor failed to examine him when he complained of bleeding.

The judge, citing reports that stated there were no visible physical injuries to Haw and a prison report recommending that his sentence remain the same, also questioned Haw’s story that he was denied proper medical attention. He said he found it difficult to believe that the nurse and doctor took “this cavalier, don’t-give-a-damn attitude.”

Haw has been out of prison on $50,000 bail and living with friends since Jan. 5. He remains free but under court order not to drive pending appeal on his case.