Rape Case Investigators Miss Court Appearance

Two defense team investigators involved in a high-profile Orange County rape case surrendered Friday after a judge issued arrest warrants because they failed to come to court.

Former FBI supervisor John Warren, who now runs an investigative firm in Tustin, and contract employee Shawn Smigel were scheduled to provide depositions in a San Bernardino County civil case connected to the rape trial.

The mother of one of the defendants, Gregory Haidl, 18, has sued San Bernardino County, alleging that law enforcement officers conspired to prevent her from assisting in her son’s defense.

Warren said the subpoena was sent to the Irvine office of Haidl’s lawyer and was lost or misplaced, so he and Smigel weren’t aware of the court date.

Warren said he heard about the arrest warrants on the radio Thursday and arranged for himself and Smigel to turn themselves in at the San Bernardino County courthouse Friday morning.

“We had no idea this was going on,” Warren said. “We weren’t disrespecting the court in any way. We just weren’t notified.”

Warren was in court in Santa Ana on Thursday morning to accompany several of the alleged victim’s former friends, who were testifying for the defense. He left the courthouse about 1:30 p.m., and San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Ben T. Kayashima issued the bench warrants shortly thereafter.

It was the second contempt hearing Warren and Smigel have missed after failing to attend their original deposition two months ago, said attorney Tristan Pelayes, who is representing San Bernardino County.

Pelayes said Friday that he was satisfied with the investigators’ promises to attend the rescheduled deposition in July. The arrest warrants were recalled.

“All we want is to take their deposition,” he said. “We don’t want to see them in jail and handcuffs.”

Haidl, along with Keith James Spann and Kyle Joseph Nachreiner, both 19, are charged with raping a then-16-year-old girl who prosecutors say was drugged and unconscious. The July 6, 2002 incident at Haidl’s father’s Corona del Mar home was videotaped, and charges were filed after the footage was given to police.

The San Bernardino County lawsuit stems from a dispute that began shortly after the defendants’ arrests. Fliers identifying the alleged victim by last name and asking for information about her family were distributed in the Rancho Cucamonga neighborhood where both she and Haidl’s mother, Gail, live.

After San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials were given a flier that had been placed in the girl’s mailbox, they began investigating Gail Haidl for possible witness tampering, and told her not to use that method to gather information. She denied responsibility for the flier, although she has admitted that it included her home phone number. She sued the sheriff late last year.