Unreasonable Doubts?

10 ways the Haidl Three got off

When, just 16 hours into their deliberations, jurors announced on June 28 they were “hopelessly deadlocked” in Orange County’s infamous Haidl rape case, observers may have recalled Mark Twain’s criticism that juries are often filled with easily prejudiced “fools and miscreants.” It’s unlikely the eight men and four women of the Haidl jury will escape similar ridicule. After all, they couldn’t bring themselves to punish Greg Haidl, Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner for the videotaped drunken debauchery that sickened several respected judges and the California attorney general. Prosecutors say that on July 6, 2002, the defendants gave Jane Doe-the 16-year-old alleged victim-beer, marijuana and five shots of liquor, and then engaged in sex with her on a garage sofa and pool table as she fell into a stupor. Later, they laughed, danced and mugged for the camera as they plunged such foreign objects as a Snapple bottle, Tree Top Apple juice can, lit cigarette and pool cue into the near motionless girl’s vagina and anus. Read more.

Distaso counters blow to testimony

REDWOOD CITY —Prosecutor Rick Distaso spent much of Tuesday reframing the case against Scott Peterson and he also showed jurors how easy it is to get misdirected. To counter questions the defense raised during a three-day cross-examination of Modesto police Detective Al Brocchini, Distaso asked the officer about a tip from a man who said he went to college with Peterson. ”(The tipster) called and said he had a conversation in 1995 where Peterson told him how he would get rid of the body if he killed someone,” Brocchini said. “He said he would tie a bag around the neck with duct tape, put weights on the hands and throw it into the sea.” Sea-life would eventually eat away the hands, feet and head, leaving few means to identify the body, Peterson allegedly told the tipster. Read the story here.

A day without the Border Patrol

There has been much angst among immigration appeasers over the highly publicized sweeps conducted by Temecula-based Border Patrol agents, who have arrested and deported hundreds of illegal immigrants from Escondido, Corona and Ontario. Predictably, immigration activists charge racism and profiling. What these agitators fail to realize is that most of these illegal immigrants who have been deported are Mexican, because the United States shares an extended border with Mexico. There should be no doubt that if the United States shared its border with Mongolia and experienced similar immigration problems, then the vast majority of deported aliens would be Mongolian. This is a no-brainer. Read here.