O.C. Sex Assault Trio Reportedly Rejected Offer of Shorter Term

Gregory Haidl and two other young men sentenced last week to six years in prison for the videotaped sexual assault of an unconscious 16-year-old turned down a plea deal last year that would have given them only three years, it was revealed Monday.

Attorneys for Haidl, son of a former Orange County assistant sheriff, and his co-defendants contacted the district attorney’s office Feb. 6, 2005 -- the day before the trio’s retrial began -- to ask for a deal: two years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea, according to the Associated Press in an account first reported by KCAL-TV Channel 9.

The district attorney’s office countered with an offer of three years in prison, according to AP. Haidl, Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner turned the deal down at the last minute, district attorney spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder told AP.

Schroeder declined to comment to The Times.

Shortly after the three rejected the deal, the district attorney’s office approached Nachreiner’s attorney, John Barnett, and offered one year of probation in exchange for his client’s testimony against Spann and Haidl. Nachreiner didn’t agree, Schroeder told AP.

“He would have had to testify truthfully against his co-defendants about exactly what he did that night, and his response was he didn’t want to be a snitch and he turned the deal down,” Schroeder told the Associated Press.

Barnett and Al Stokke, Haidl’s attorney, declined to comment to The Times on Monday. Peter Morreale, Spann’s attorney, could not be reached.

Haidl, 20, and Spann and Nachreiner, both 21, were sentenced Friday to six years. Each defendant was also sentenced to three years of parole after time served and ordered to register as sex offenders.

Because of time already spent in jail, and with credit for good behavior, Haidl could be freed in 21 months and the others a few months later.

The videotape and sordid details drew national attention to the July 2002 crime at the Corona del Mar home of Don Haidl, Gregory Haidl’s father, who was then an assistant sheriff.

The younger Haidl recorded himself and his friends performing sex acts on the girl with a variety of objects, including a lighted cigarette, a pool cue and a bottle.

He left the tape among acquaintances at a Newport Beach summer rental house. A renter’s girlfriend, who thought the girl in the footage was dead, passed the tape to a police officer.

The first prosecution ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked, leaning toward acquittal on nearly all counts.

The three were convicted a year ago after a second trial, though jurors did acquit them on several counts.