CBS News: Eye Of The Beholder, November 19, 2004

In Orange County, California, three 17-year-old guys are accused to committing rape against a 16-year-old girl who is officially being called Jane Doe. 48 Hours starts out their report showing Jane Doe reading a poem from behind to protect her identity. You hear the girl speak sincerely. She is clearly feeling violated. Her feelings are sincere.

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Next, you see one of the accused boys, Kyle Nachreiner, answering 48 Hours interviewer, Bill Lagattuta’s questions, “Did you rape her? Or, was it consensual sex?”

Kyle clearly lies when he replies something to the fact that she really wanted it and it was consensual. That was all I needed to see to have a deep seeded feeling that Kyle was the one lying. I suspected the problems lied with the three boys.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t always side with the women. Many women are motivated to lie in situations dealing with rape accusations (to gain money) — but in this case, this girl was being honest.

From that point forward, I was dying to learn the facts of the case to see if my gut reaction, my feelings of a lie, were accurate. As it turns out, I believe they were.

In my opinion, Jane Doe was a girl who was troubled and lost — and didn’t respect her body. She started hanging with the wrong crowd and lacked good judgment – there no doubt about it but when it came to the night of the alleged rape, she did not deserve what she got. She was violated.

The night before the alleged rape, the guys claimed that they discovered the following morning to their total surprise that while they partied at a pool in the backyard — they each had slept with Jane Doe at separate times — unaware that their friend(s) also had. They were shocked. When one of the guys, Greg Haidl, stated this, it was believable as strange and as contradictory as this seemed. I knew he was being honest. Weird.

What I believed happened in this situation is that these three guys felt “used” when they discovered they weren’t the only object of her affection that night. They felt violated and betrayed. And so hence they plotted to “use” her back in a very sick and twisted way — as pay back. That day after the discovery that they were each “used”, they called and invited Jane Doe back over for that evening.

One of the guys clearly states on camera that she came over and the first thing she said was “Hi. Can I have a beer?” Another lie. Yes, Jane Doe drank. She got drunk but she didn’t walk in the door and demand a beer.

Jane Doe admits to sleeping with two of the three boys the night before the rape. When she states this, for some reason I doubt her honesty about it. She seems evasive. I think she may have slept with all three of the boys as Greg Haidl said, but I am not certain.

In a deeper twist, as the story continues, you find out that the alleged crime took place at the house of Greg Haidl, whose father is the Assistant Sheriff in Orange County — second in charge in the county– while the Assistant sheriff himself was home. He was also home the night before with his wife when the boys had consensual sex with Jane Doe.

Furthermore, the boys recorded the entire event on video tape. The Assistant sheriff’s son, Greg Haidl, loved to make video movies — and according to him “someone” — one of his friends — turned on the camera that night and recorded the whole event. When he said he didn’t know who turned it on, he was clearly lying. You could see it in his face. I could feel it. He knew exactly who turned on that camera. I suspect it was him.

According to the D.A., Jane Doe is unconscious during the recording of the sexual act where the three guys have what they call “kinky sex” with the girl using not only their bodies but different objects. Since Jane Doe is supposedly unconscious in the video, it is considered rape by California state law because she wasn’t able to give consent. The big question is, did she?

The next morning, the guys drive Jane Doe home and she has no memories of what happened to her. It wasn’t until the Assistant sheriff’s son brought over his prized video tape to a friend’s house to show him — that he hung himself. He accidentally forgot to take it home with him — and another woman found it. She was appalled by what she saw and shared it with her neighbor who was a cop. The cop questioned if this woman was even alive still so formal charges were pressed against the boys. That’s when Jane Doe’s father gets a call and Jane Doe finds out.

The case went to trial and it was a mis-trial. The jury couldn’t agree if the girl was conscious enough to give consent. She had a pillow under her head which confused them and they say she kissed one of the boys. The jury deadlocked. It is now scheduled to go to court again in January 2005 which doesn’t bode well for the boys. Second trials have a statistically higher likelihood of ending in a sentence of guilty.

The Assistant sheriff’s son has since tried to commit suicide twice, and has been charged in raping another 16 year old girl (who claims this sex was consensual) — but this time he is 19 years old and she is clearly a minor (at least I suspect that is true in California). He is currently sitting in jail on suicide watch.

And Jane Doe? She’s been arrested for using meth and is now suing the Assistant sheriff’s family, the Haidl’s, who are well-to-do, for millions of dollars.

In any case, the victim isn’t a clean character — nor are the guys who raped her. Anyone can see that — which makes this case all the more difficult. It isn’t cut and dry. But clearly, to me, the guys told lie after lie after lie. All three of them. Jane Doe stretched the truth once, and perhaps lied one time though I am not certain. She seems much more believable.

Update:
Second Trial Results (March 23, 2005)