Rape Case Still Needs a Measure of Justice

Gregory Haidl is on suicide watch. Jane Doe faces drug charges. A network TV news magazine program is in the offing.

A case that always seemed one step away from tabloid heaven is out of control as two of the four principals -- the alleged victim and one of the defendants -- appear to be spiraling downward. On top of that, the case is getting weaker as prosecutors scale back in hopes of swaying a second jury.

Now, more than ever, the celebrated Orange County gang-rape trial of three teenagers accused of assaulting

an unconscious 16-year-old girl in July 2002 cries out to be settled.

The case has become a grandstander’s delight, fueled by a 20-minute video showing the three boys -- Haidl and two friends, then 17 -- having sex with the allegedly unconscious Jane Doe after she joined them for post-midnight revelry. The tape also shows them using a pool cue, fruit can and a juice bottle to penetrate or prod her.

At the first trial, she acknowledged having sex with two of the three boys the night before; the boys’ attorneys contend she had sex with all three and that she feigned unconsciousness on the night in question or, at minimum, led the boys to believe they could have their way with her.

After three days of deliberation, the jury deadlocked in June, with most favoring acquittal. Since then, the case has nearly run off the rails.

Haidl has been before a judge for violating probation when he was suspected of trespassing and allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old girl in San Clemente. He faces misdemeanor charges in that case. Most recently, he was arrested for driving the wrong way on a Santa Ana street and causing a traffic accident. That resulted Tuesday in a judge sending him to county jail.

Meanwhile, Jane Doe has been arrested twice in the last three weeks on suspicion of using or possessing methamphetamine and has been charged with intent to sell it.

It’s difficult to write about this case with precision, because the underlying facts are in dispute. For instance, if we knew with certainty that Jane Doe was conscious and, in essence, consenting on the video -- as at least one expert testified -- the foreign objects amount to kinky dildos. If you accept other experts’ views that she was unconscious and consented to nothing, the objects are weapons in a criminal assault.

Apparently in response to the tepid reaction of the first jury, prosecutors have scaled back their case. They alleged in the first trial, for example, that the boys drugged Jane Doe. For a second trial, they say they won’t try to prove that, voluntarily dropping a part of the case that suggested the boys calculatingly set out to assault the girl and rendered her unconscious.

Prosecutors also made it clear before the first trial that they wanted to throw the book at the boys. They didn’t blanch as the potential sentences from the charges moved beyond 50 years in prison. Now, they’re saying they’ll tell jurors that probation is an option.

I don’t grant them the high road, but I’ll give them this: There’s some justice that should be meted out here.

I never saw the video -- and therefore have ambiguity about exactly what happened -- but I’ve always thought the boys committed a crime. I argued against prison, but I’d send the message that their deeds can’t be laughed off as they were in the video.

The defense attorneys may not want to play ball, but I still think their clients owe Jane Doe and the public an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. It’s an acknowledgment that should cost the teens at least some months of their freedom.

It’s a deal that would spare everyone another emotionally punishing trial. And maybe it would help at least two of its troubled participants regain a chance for a hopeful, meaningful life.

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Dana Parsons can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com.