Haidl hearing extended

The state Supreme Court is taking another 30 days to consider hearing the appeal of sex offender Greg Haidl and his accomplices to have their convictions for sexually assaulting an unconscious teenage girl overturned.

The most likely explanation for the additional time is so the court isn’t working up against the Fourth of July holiday weekend, said Haidl’s attorney, Dennis Fischer. He said the court’s move to postpone a decision on whether to hear the case didn’t indicate anything about his client’s chances of being heard.

Fischer petitioned the state Supreme Court in May to hear arguments on why Haidl’s conviction for sexually assaulting a teenage girl in his father’s garage in 2002 should be overturned. Fischer petitioned for his client, and attorneys for accomplices Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner’s attorneys joined the petition later.

All three also want to have their requirements to register as a sex offender overturned.

They were sentenced to six years in prison and have since been released.

They were convicted in 2005 of inserting various objects, including a lit cigarette, pool cue, Snapple bottle and other objects in a 16-year-old girl’s orifices while she was passed out drunk. The three who were juveniles when they videotaped the crime. The video was turned over to police by one of their friends.

In 2009, Fischer argued to the Court of Appeal that the men did not receive a fair trial because the judge did not allow testimony that the victim had participated in similar sexual acts before and could have been consenting in this instance as well.

The Court of Appeal determined that testimony about her sexual past wasn’t pertinent because there was plenty of testimony in the trial to the same effect already.

Court records indicated that the victim didn’t remember anything from the incident. Prosecutors said the video shows her completely unconscious and limp while the boys penetrated her with the objects.

The state Supreme Court has until Aug. 10 to decide whether to hear the case.