Dad Of Decade Don Haidl Dies

Sometimes people die and it is very, very sad. Sometimes people die, and they are Don Haidl. Haidl was assistant sheriff in Orange County, California, when his son and several of said son's buddies videotaped themselves gang-raping passed-out 16-year-old acquaintance Jane Doe on a pool table, with a snapple bottle, a pool cue, and a lit cigarette. Assistant Sheriff Haidl then used some portion of his hundreds of millions of dollars (from government contracts, of course) to finance a defense that would accuse Jane Doe of raping the boys. 

(We were in the courtroom when a defense witness "doctor" watched the videotape and narrated it for the court: "As you can see, Jane Doe is drinking a beer and so is clearly not unconscious." Later, lying prone on the pool table, she peed herself; the doctor said she was acting because earlier she had moved her hand.) Fliers with her face were put up around her neighborhood, seeking "information." The defense -- the first time -- was successful; for a time, the younger Haidl and his buddies went free.

Justice eventually prevailed and Greg Haidl did real time; Jane Doe, despite the odds, got her shit together and is living a good and solid life. Haidl's boss, corrupt, grifty, Editrix-pal and Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona is still in prison in Colorado somewhere, we think. And now Don Haidl is dead at 61. Universe, moral arc, justice, etc.

[ OCWeekly ]