“Sit down and shut up.”
–Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno five years ago this week to Joseph Cavallo, the Irvine-based criminal defense lawyer who represented Gregory Haidl in the sensational videotaped gang rape case involving an unconscious 16-year-old girl. Cavallo called Jane Doe, the victim, “a slut” who masterminded the “disgusting, filthy, trashy” incident where the three defendants repeatedly shoved anatomical parts as well as a Snapple bottle, lit cigarette, apple juice can and a pool cue into her vagina, rectum and mouth.
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The defendants–Haidl, Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner–were
convicted and served portions of six-year prison sentences after
apologizing. But they are now attempting to overturn the case so they
don't have to register as sex offenders. Cavallo later lost his license
to practice law after he was caught in an illegal financial scheme with
local bail bonds agents. Haidl's father, Don–a former assistant
sheriff, faces sentencing next month after the FBI and IRS caught him cheating on his taxes. He's not expected to serve any prison time because he helped federal prosecutors nab Sheriff Mike Carona who attempted to sabotage a grand jury investigating corruption at the top of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
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.