O.C. Gang-Rape Retrial to Omit Drug Allegation

In the retrial of three young men charged with gang-raping an allegedly unconscious girl who was then 16, Orange County prosecutors said Thursday they would not try to prove that the defendants sedated her with a powerful date-rape drug.

In the first trial, which ended with a hung jury, the prosecution and defense called expert witnesses to testify whether the girl had been rendered powerless by being slipped the drug GHB.

This time, Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Chuck Middleton said during a court appearance Thursday, prosecutors would contend only that the defendants knocked the girl out with alcohol before raping her. The defendants videotaped the sex.

“It’s a bombshell in terms of how significant it is for our case,” said Pete Scalisi, lead attorney for Gregory Haidl, son of an Orange County assistant sheriff. “In the first trial, the government almost based its entire case on GHB. To walk away from that theory now shows that they’re really not sure what happened.”

Haidl is charged with rape along with Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner, all 19.

The videotape was the prosecution’s key evidence during the first trial, which ended in a mistrial in June with the jury leaning toward acquittal on most counts. The defense has argued that the tape showed a consensual encounter.

Several days of expert testimony in the first trial centered on the prosecutors’ contention that the defendants had given the girl an alcoholic drink laced with GHB before sexually assaulting her at the Corona del Mar home of Haidl’s father.

Legal analysts said dropping that part of the prosecution’s case could help both sides. Prosecutors will have a more streamlined case, but the defense won’t have to worry about how an accusation involving drugs might prejudice a jury.

“It takes away some of the inflammatory nature of the case,” said former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School. “There’s been so much in the news about the use of GHB in date rape that mention of it immediately sparks thoughts of criminal activity.”

Also on Thursday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno moved the trial date from Oct. 18 to Jan. 31, allowing Spann’s attorney to finish a murder trial.

In the new trial, prosecutors will not introduce evidence about a separate, pending unlawful-sex charge against the younger Haidl. He is accused of having sex with an underage girl he met the night that mistrial was declared.