To their defense lawyers, the three defendants accused in the July 2002 gang-rape of an unconscious girl on a pool table are thoughtful, budding gentlemen whose love of school is overshadowed only by their desire to help the needy and defenseless animals.
“It was planned not by them, but by her,” Nachreiner lawyer John Barnett has told the jury, which is expected to decide the case in late June.
But on May 10, prosecutor Dan Hess landed a major blow to the defense when he replayed video Haidl and Nachreiner shot of themselves less than six weeks before the July 6, 2002, alleged rape. Jane Doe, then 16 years old, was not present for the taping, and yet the teenagers were—and here was the surprise for jury– not the well-mannered boys presented by the defense.
Here's why Hess didn't feel the need to offer commentary for jurors about the May 31, 2002, video:
It's after 8 p.m., Haidl films Nachreiner, then 17 years old, drinking vodka and pink fruit punch outside, standing on what appears to be a garage roof top. Haidl yells at Nachreiner, “Hurry up and down that! You got three seconds!” Nachreiner gulps from the glass and then smiles. He's finished one-third of the cocktail. An unknown third male stands nearby smiling, giggling.
Haidl dares Nachreiner to hurl himself over a guard rail and onto concrete pavement which looks to be about 20-feet below. Nachreiner is seen pacing and mugging for the camera which has a fish-eye lens. It's dusk. The sun is setting behind some trees in the background.
“Fucking listen to this, bitch,” he says of Haidl.
Haidl replies, “You are a pussy. . . . Don't be a bitch.”
Nachreiner says, “You think I'm some black-ass nigger?” He drinks more and says with disgust, “Fucking drink!”
“Hey, Kyle, don't be gay,” he says.
“Bitch!” says Nachreiner, who says he'll jump only if he can jump with the camera.
Haidl says no. “I'm going to fuck you up,” he adds. “Don't be gay, Kyle. . . . Don't be weak, Kyle.”
Nachreiner puts down his drink, runs, leaps off the roof and, to cheers, lands with a thud on the pavement. Haidl captures it all. Nachreiner rolls momentarily out of control from the force of the impact and then laughs. The film goes dark.
Weeks later, Haidl, Nachreiner and Spann invited Jane Doe to their unsupervised, late-night party, gave her beers, marijuana and a mixed drink. Prosecutors say that after the girl fell unconscious, the defendants videotaped themselves raping and molesting her with a pool stick, lighted cigarette, Snapple bottle and a juice can. Hess said the defendants repeatedly inserted and twisted the foreign objects in Jane Doe's vagina and rectum causing numerous internal tears. On some occasions, defense lawyers claim that the girl had given advanced consent; on others, they argue that the then-16-year-old girl was faking unconsciousness and enjoyed the experience.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.