Trouble continues to plague teenager

Deepa Bharath

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is investigating whether an

assistant sheriff’s 19-year-old son, who is free on bail awaiting

retrial on a high-profile gang-rape case, had sex Tuesday with an

underage girl.

Greg Haidl, son of Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl,

along with Kyle Nachreiner and Keith Spann are accused of raping an

unconscious 16-year-old girl at the assistant sheriff’s Corona del

Mar home about two years ago. A jury last month deadlocked on all 24

felony counts, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.

Orange County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a “disturbing the

peace” call at about 12:20 a.m. Wednesday at a home in the 1800 block

of Avenida Salvador in San Clemente, department spokesman Jim

Amormino said.

“Neighbors reported that loud noises were coming out of the

house,” he said.

Greg Haidl was in the house with four other teenagers -- one male

and three females, Amormino said. All the juveniles were between 15

and 17, he said.

Officers took a crime report for possible unlawful sexual

intercourse with a minor against Greg Haidl, Amormino said. The

alleged victim was under 17, but the charge if filed will be a

misdemeanor because the age difference between Greg Haidl and the

girl is less than three years, he said.

A small amount of marijuana was also found in the home, but

officials have not determined who it belonged to. The quantity of

marijuana “would fit in a teaspoon,” Amormino said.

No charges have been filed yet, but an investigation of possible

criminal behavior is underway, Amormino said.

The complaint did not come from the alleged victim, Amormino said.

Greg Haidl’s attorney, Pete Scalisi, said Wednesday night that he

had just heard about the investigation minutes before talking to a

Pilot reporter and was yet to discuss it with his client.

“I haven’t talked to Greg or the family,” he said. “So I’ll have

to reserve my comment until I do that.”

The results of the investigation will be turned over to the Orange

County district attorney, Amormino said.

The district attorney’s office, which was quick to file for

retrial on the gang-rape case, did not comment on Wednesday’s

incident because officials had not yet received information from the

sheriff’s office.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Schroeder said that the district

attorney “will be looking at the complaint and police report to see

if there has been a new violation of the law relating to rape.”

Greg Haidl is currently free on $100,000 bail. The district

attorney, after reviewing this new case, will also consider whether

to ask the court to increase his bail, Schroeder said.

“If the charges are filed against him for statutory rape, then

there is a case for the bail to be raised because there is a change

in circumstances right there,” she said.

It’s too soon, however, to talk about how this incident will

affect the district attorney’s new list of charges in the retrial,

Schroeder said.

This is not Greg Haidl’s first brush with the law since being

charged in the gang-rape. He had an encounter with law enforcement

officials in May, three days after his jury trial began, when Greg

Haidl and two other men were reportedly stopped by Orange County

Sheriff’s deputies after they illegally entered a private walkway in

a Dana Point condo complex and removed a railing on a walkway to ride

skateboards. No charges were filed.

In January, Greg Haidl, and 12 other men, were stopped and cited

for trespassing after they illegally entered an abandoned piece of

property in Laguna Niguel to ride their skateboards. Again, no

charges were filed.

And there was an Oct. 26 incident, when Greg Haidl was stopped yet

again for illegally skateboarding at a closed business park in San

Clemente. At the time, police found marijuana and drug paraphernalia

in the car near where he was sitting.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.