Rape Trial Expert: Girl Unconscious

Attempting to patch holes the defense may have punched in their case, prosecutors in an Orange County rape trial called a neurologist Tuesday to testify that the alleged victim was clearly unconscious.

“She looks like a rag doll,” Dr. Peter Fotinakes said while watching in court a videotape that the prosecution says shows the three defendants raping a 16-year-old girl and sexually assaulting her with various objects.

Charged in the July 2002 incident are Gregory Scott Haidl, 18, and Kyle Joseph Nachreiner and Keith James Spann, both 19. Although all three teens and the girl lived in Rancho Cucamonga at the time, the incident took place at the Corona del Mar home of Haidl’s father, a top-ranking Orange County sheriff’s official.

A neurology expert called by the defense told jurors June 8 that the girl’s actions in the video -- raising her arms and brushing back her hair, for example -- illustrated her alertness.

On Tuesday, Fotinakes said her movements were not as purposeful as the earlier witness made them seem. Her arms were flaccid when she lifted them, and her head kept flopping to the side, he said.

Prosecutors have said that the defendants gave the girl an alcoholic drink laced with the date-rape drug GHB or a similar substance to knock her out.

Defense lawyers have countered that the girl -- now 18 and called Jane Doe in court -- was faking unconsciousness and that the encounter was consensual -- in keeping with the consensual sex that she testified she had with two of the suspects the day before.

After reviewing the 21-minute tape, Fotinakes addressed the jurors directly.

“You don’t have to be an expert to understand there is a significant amount of intoxication going on with this girl,” Fotinakes said. “Use your common sense.”

The doctor admitted under cross-examination that it can be difficult to distinguish between unconsciousness caused by drugs or alcohol and that triggered by a psychological disorder. The defense has offered Jane Doe’s troubled home life as justification for her feigned unconsciousness.

But Jane Doe didn’t seem to be faking her symptoms on the video, Fotinakes said.

Also on Tuesday, a rape expert contradicted a defense witness’ contention that nurses examining the girl may have caused the injuries they observed by stretching her skin or using cotton swabs to probe the area.

Both actions are “routinely done in all sexual-assault exams,” said Dr. Astrid Heger, executive director of the Violence Intervention Program in Los Angeles.

“Can it lead to injury?” asked prosecutor Dan Hess.

“Never seen it,” she replied.