Pubdate: Mon, 15 Dec 2003
Source: Orange County Weekly (CA)
Copyright: 2003, O.C. Weekly Media, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ocweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/322
Author: R. Scott Moxley
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

'OUR LITTLE SECRET'

Audio tape reveals cover-up of drug bust involving a sheriff's son
already on trial for a videotaped gang bang

A bombshell audio recording reveals police suppressed evidence that
Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl's teenage son was caught smoking marijuana
while awaiting trial on charges he participated in a 2002 videotaped
gang rape of an unconscious 16-year-old girl.

Official records show that Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo secretly
ordered Sgt. Richard Downing to bury evidence of Gregory Scott Haidl's
involvement in an Oct. 26 San Clemente drug bust. Records also prove
that Sheriff's Lt. William J. Hunt--chief of police services in San
Clemente, where the sheriff has jurisdiction--released Haidl without
arrest and chauffeured him home. In a subsequent report, Hunt
downplayed the ride as a "courtesy to another member of the department
whose son was in a situation he should not have been in."

Haidl is awaiting a March trial on the rape charges. Under terms of
his $100,000 bail, a drug arrest would have landed the 18-year-old in
jail immediately.

Sheriff's Department officials deny they obstructed justice on Haidl's
behalf.

Haidl

But a sheriff's department audio recording offers a rare, candid
glimpse of Orange County law enforcement. On the tape, an excited
Downing reaches Jaramillo at home on the night of Oct. 26. He tells
Jaramillo, a political appointee close to Sheriff Mike Carona, that
deputies have helped Haidl get out of "trouble." Downing tells
Jaramillo that officers found young Haidl "smoking pot behind some
industrial buildings" with two other teenagers and that Hunt has "cut
loose" Haidl without arrest or citation.

"Okay," says Jaramillo, who then orders that any records of the
encounter be "buried" because "the press will be all over this."
Downing replies that the incident won't appear in the official log. He
tells Jaramillo the drug bust will be "our little secret."

For five days, the stratagem worked. Deputies kept the episode hidden
from public view by recording erroneous or factually incomplete
information in their reports. Deputy J. Roche, an officer at the
scene, wrote in his Oct. 26 "Daily Activity Report" that he merely
found the three teenagers skateboarding in San Clemente's Talega
Business Park. He concluded vaguely: "all released; no prosecution."
Roche did not mention Haidl's family connection or rape charges, the
sandwich bag and orange pill bottle containing 3.5 grams of marijuana,
the yellow glass smoking pipe with pot residue, or why officers had
lingered at the scene for 65 minutes.

All anyone on the outside world was supposed to know about the drug
bust was the deceptive words deputies used on the department's online
incident log: "traffic stop."

But on Oct. 31, KCBS-TV reporter Dave Lopez spooked deputies when he
confronted them with a tip that Haidl had received a favor, like a
ride home from an illegal skateboarding event. Sheriff's spokesman Jim
Amormino coyly told Lopez that Haidl had been given a ride home, but
said the favor wasn't a big deal.

Officers may have appeared calm, but behind the scenes tension
mounted. Sheriff's department records show that within hours of the
Lopez call, deputies filed a new, backdated and altered "crime report"
and, in violation of sheriff's policy, logged the drugs--inexplicably
minus the pot pipe--into the evidence locker more than 100 hours after
they'd been confiscated.

Roche's new version of events carried a handwritten date of Oct. 26
but was not time-stamped until Oct. 31. During those five days the
skateboarding incident became a "possession of marijuana" case--not
against Haidl, but against his 16-year-old companion. Roche dutifully
noted that he had "seized" drugs and promptly logged the narcotics
into evidence. Nowhere did he bother to explain numerous discrepancies
with his original report.

Even more problematic is that sheriff's department files do not
support Roche's new account. For example, evidence-tracking records
reviewed by the Weekly demonstrate that many items were logged in
during the Oct. 26-27 shift--a fraudulent check, a screwdriver, a
Popov vodka bottle, a spray-paint can, a California license plate and
an obscenity-laden paddle--but no drugs from the Haidl incident.

An apparent part of the cover-up was the effort to get the 16-year-old
suspect to take responsibility for the pot-in hopes of relieving Haidl
of any culpability. Law enforcement sources claim Haidl's 16-year-old
skateboarding companion agreed to the deal sometime between Oct. 26
and Oct. 31. They say the minor was promised that his name would
remain secret and he'd only have to attend drug diversion classes as
punishment.

On Nov. 3, KCBS aired its report about deputies giving Haidl a special
ride home, and though some involved officers privately expressed no
fear, others openly worried about further leaks. The next day, Chief
Hunt wrote a memo to the City Council and City Manager George
Scarborough. In the memo, Hunt expressed hope that there would be "no
more negative press." He also described the affair as routine and
promised "there was no reason for [Haidl's] arrest."

But Hunt didn't mention that his officers had filed multiple
contradictory reports, publicly listed a drug bust as a traffic stop,
misplaced the pot pipe and took five days to log the marijuana into
evidence. At the end of the memo, he noted that he would continue to
work with the sheriff's media relations unit to explain the "actual
circumstances of this incident" to the press.

But it's not just the press asking questions anymore. In early
November, the grand jury opened an investigation to determine if
officers obstructed justice on Haidl's behalf. The citizen-led panel
working in conjunction with District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has a
copy of the Downing-Jaramillo audiotape as well as contradictory
official reports of the incident. The first witness called in for an
explanation was Jaramillo, but he pleaded the 5th Amendment.

Asked if he ordered deputies to bury evidence in the drug bust,
Jaramillo told the Weekly, "Nope, nope, nope. I didn't give such an
order . . . I never used the word bury."

But he admitted that he did hope to keep the incident-which he called
a "chump-change infraction"--out of the press. "I may have said,
'Don't put [the incident] on the log,' but I had just woken up."

Jaramillo denied that his intervention was improper or illegal. "There
was nothing unusual about this," he said. "We've done this many times
for politicians."

"I'm not so naive as to try to get something buried," Jaramillo said.
He added that everything he discussed that night with Downing was
"standard operating procedure."

Jaramillo also adamantly denied that he knew Haidl had been smoking
pot. "They did not tell me that," he said.

The assistant sheriff says he welcomes the grand jury investigation.
"It isn't a cover-up," he said. "It's a procedural thing about keeping
embarrassing things out of the press . . . I don't want good people
like the Haidls to be beaten on."

The San Clemente pot case isn't the only time Jaramillo allegedly
interceded in a criminal matter for young Haidl. Jaramillo became the
subject of controversy during the investigation of the 2002 videotaped
gang bang of an unconscious 16-year-old girl in Haidl's Newport Beach
house. Prosecutors claim Jaramillo advised the Haidl family not to
answer their questions.

"I was not involved," Jaramillo told the Weekly. "I played no role. I
played no part. I didn't talk to the boy or anyone else."

Along with Kyle Joseph Nachreiner and Keith James Spann, both also 18,
Haidl now faces a March trial for allegedly raping and then sexually
molesting the girl with a cigarette, Snapple bottle and a pool stick.
Defense lawyers claim the girl consented to the sex before she passed
out and the teenagers activated the video camera. All three teenagers
face life in prison if convicted.

Downing, Hunt and Haidl did not respond to interview
requests.

A transcript of the Oct. 26 telephone call between Sheriff's Sgt.
Richard Downing and Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo after deputies
found accused rapist Gregory Scott Haidl--son of Assistant Sheriff Don
Haidl--"smoking pot" during a drug bust:

Jaramillo

Jaramillo: Hello?

Downing: Hope I didn't wake you up. I wanted to catch you before you went 
to sleep, but I just found this out myself. I'm just giving you a heads-up 
that Don Haidl's son got into a little bit of trouble in our area in San 
Clemente. He and a couple of his friends were smoking pot behind some 
industrial buildings. He's been cut loose with no citation or anything. The 
sergeant is going to notify Chief Haidl right now about the incident.

Jaramillo: Which son?

Downing: Gregory.

Jaramillo: Okay. Ummm. He didn't get cited or anything?

Downing: No, we did not.

Jaramillo: Listen.

Downing: Yes, sir.

Jaramillo: The press will be all over this.

Downing: I know.

Jaramillo: So we got to make sure that this gets buried.

Downing: I know. That's why I'm calling you personally. It won't be put on 
the log or anything, and the chief [Haidl] is going to know. That's our 
little secret.

Jaramillo: So when he got stopped, where was he?

Downing: He was in an industrial complex in San Clemente. He and a couple 
of his friends were smoking marijuana. They had less than one ounce and he 
didn't want to give a lot of information. He told the sergeant and the 
deputy he lived in Rancho Cucamonga, but they found out he was staying with 
his mother in San Clemente.

Jaramillo: Uh-huh. Okay. So the long and the short of it is they did not 
arrest him?

Downing: No, they did not. But that was a decision made by Bill Hunt.

Jaramillo: How long ago was this?

Downing: This was . . . I just got the phone call five minutes ago.

Jaramillo: I'm going to call Don [Haidl] right now.

Downing: Okay. All right, sir.

Source: OC Sheriff's Department
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin