SOME JUSTICE AT LAST

Despite videotaped evidence, high-priced lawyers nearly got these rich-kid B******S off Scot-free. But if they get any sort of prison sentence no doubt the appeals will go on and on

The son of a former assistant sheriff in wealthy Orange County, California, is to be sentenced today to as many as 12 years in prison for leading the sexual assault of a teenage girl on a pool table — a crime that was captured on a 21-minute videotape. Gregory Haidl and his two friends were 17 at the time of the crime, during which a 16-year-old restaurant hostess was abused with a pool cue, a cigarette and a bottle of Snapple. During the lurid trial the teenagers claimed that their victim was an aspiring porn star who had agreed to an orgy and was faking unconsciousness. It was Mr Haidl himself who recorded the assault on his Sony Handycam. The July 2002 assault was all the more controversial because it took place in the garage of the home of Mr Haidl’s father, Don, who was then the Orange County assistant sheriff. He had gone into politics after making a multimillion-dollar fortune from car auctions.....

The first trial of the case resulted in a deadlocked jury, whose members said that they found the evidence ambiguous. The defence had put up as a witness a neurologist who minutely analysed the tape and said that the girl’s movements showed that she was alert. At a second trial, the jury convicted the three men of sexual penetration but not rape.

For the past four years, the citizens of Rancho Cucamonga have been unable to escape the aftershocks of the crime. The accuser, known as Jane Doe in the press, but widely known in the town, was forced to switch high schools. She became addicted to methamphetamine. Leaflets were put up in the town asking for information about her family. The victim, now 20, has since gone through drug rehabilitation.....

The case began when an 18-year-old woman, Lindsay Picou, found the videotape of the incident at a rented beach house. She was so disturbed that she hid the tape in a towel, put it in her car, and later gave it to a police officer.

Ms Picou was regarded locally as a pariah as a result, eventually having to move away from the area. After watching the videotape, she had feared that the unconscious woman was dead. Her mother told The Los Angeles Times: “My daughter was raised in a Christian home and did what she’s supposed to do, and for that, no deed goes unpunished. “It’s been four years of hell

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