48 Hour Rape Case Review

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CBS News: Eye Of The Beholder, November 19, 2004

In Orange County, California, three 17-year-old guys are accused to committing rape against a 16-year-old girl who is officially being called Jane Doe. 48 Hours starts out their report showing Jane Doe reading a poem from behind to protect her identity. You hear the girl speak sincerely. She is clearly feeling violated. Her feelings are sincere.


Photo courtesy of http://www.freefoto.com

Next, you see one of the accused boys, Kyle Nachreiner, answering 48 Hours interviewer, Bill Lagattuta’s questions, “Did you rape her? Or, was it consensual sex?”

Kyle clearly lies when he replies something to the fact that she really wanted it and it was consensual. That was all I needed to see to have a deep seeded feeling that Kyle was the one lying. I suspected the problems lied with the three boys.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t always side with the women. Many women are motivated to lie in situations dealing with rape accusations (to gain money) — but in this case, this girl was being honest.

From that point forward, I was dying to learn the facts of the case to see if my gut reaction, my feelings of a lie, were accurate. As it turns out, I believe they were.

In my opinion, Jane Doe was a girl who was troubled and lost — and didn’t respect her body. She started hanging with the wrong crowd and lacked good judgment – there no doubt about it but when it came to the night of the alleged rape, she did not deserve what she got. She was violated.

The night before the alleged rape, the guys claimed that they discovered the following morning to their total surprise that while they partied at a pool in the backyard — they each had slept with Jane Doe at separate times — unaware that their friend(s) also had. They were shocked. When one of the guys, Greg Haidl, stated this, it was believable as strange and as contradictory as this seemed. I knew he was being honest. Weird.

What I believed happened in this situation is that these three guys felt “used” when they discovered they weren’t the only object of her affection that night. They felt violated and betrayed. And so hence they plotted to “use” her back in a very sick and twisted way — as pay back. That day after the discovery that they were each “used”, they called and invited Jane Doe back over for that evening.

One of the guys clearly states on camera that she came over and the first thing she said was “Hi. Can I have a beer?” Another lie. Yes, Jane Doe drank. She got drunk but she didn’t walk in the door and demand a beer.

Jane Doe admits to sleeping with two of the three boys the night before the rape. When she states this, for some reason I doubt her honesty about it. She seems evasive. I think she may have slept with all three of the boys as Greg Haidl said, but I am not certain.

In a deeper twist, as the story continues, you find out that the alleged crime took place at the house of Greg Haidl, whose father is the Assistant Sheriff in Orange County — second in charge in the county– while the Assistant sheriff himself was home. He was also home the night before with his wife when the boys had consensual sex with Jane Doe.

Furthermore, the boys recorded the entire event on video tape. The Assistant sheriff’s son, Greg Haidl, loved to make video movies — and according to him “someone” — one of his friends — turned on the camera that night and recorded the whole event. When he said he didn’t know who turned it on, he was clearly lying. You could see it in his face. I could feel it. He knew exactly who turned on that camera. I suspect it was him.

According to the D.A., Jane Doe is unconscious during the recording of the sexual act where the three guys have what they call “kinky sex” with the girl using not only their bodies but different objects. Since Jane Doe is supposedly unconscious in the video, it is considered rape by California state law because she wasn’t able to give consent. The big question is, did she?

The next morning, the guys drive Jane Doe home and she has no memories of what happened to her. It wasn’t until the Assistant sheriff’s son brought over his prized video tape to a friend’s house to show him — that he hung himself. He accidentally forgot to take it home with him — and another woman found it. She was appalled by what she saw and shared it with her neighbor who was a cop. The cop questioned if this woman was even alive still so formal charges were pressed against the boys. That’s when Jane Doe’s father gets a call and Jane Doe finds out.

The case went to trial and it was a mis-trial. The jury couldn’t agree if the girl was conscious enough to give consent. She had a pillow under her head which confused them and they say she kissed one of the boys. The jury deadlocked. It is now scheduled to go to court again in January 2005 which doesn’t bode well for the boys. Second trials have a statistically higher likelihood of ending in a sentence of guilty.

The Assistant sheriff’s son has since tried to commit suicide twice, and has been charged in raping another 16 year old girl (who claims this sex was consensual) — but this time he is 19 years old and she is clearly a minor (at least I suspect that is true in California). He is currently sitting in jail on suicide watch.

And Jane Doe? She’s been arrested for using meth and is now suing the Assistant sheriff’s family, the Haidl’s, who are well-to-do, for millions of dollars.

In any case, the victim isn’t a clean character — nor are the guys who raped her. Anyone can see that — which makes this case all the more difficult. It isn’t cut and dry. But clearly, to me, the guys told lie after lie after lie. All three of them. Jane Doe stretched the truth once, and perhaps lied one time though I am not certain. She seems much more believable.

Update:
Second Trial Results (March 23, 2005)

Chomping at the bit…

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Tonight my hubby and I sat down to watch Dateline on TV. They had special about a murder case in Las Vegas. They inform you that someone is going to commit murder– and you won’t believe who.

Then in the first two to three minutes of the show, they played the 9-1-1 call of a woman. She spoke of her husband trying to kill her, you heard silence and then gun shots.

Within 15-30 seconds of her speaking on the 9-11 tape before I heard the gun shots, I said very firmly to my husband, “She is definitely lying.”

You could tell by the way she spoke totally calmly in the beginning of the call — whispering clearly and precisely giving out her address. Then she speed up her voice, and it became high pitched. Each sentence ended in a high pitch. If someone is about to kill you, you don’t speak totally calmly then squeal off at the end. There is never a moment of calm. It’s terror. It is feverish, shaky, jittery — whispering maybe – but clearly not calm.

I knew it before any evidence came up that she was guilty of killing her husband and it wasn’t self-defense. The 9-1-1 call was all it took me. I was certain.

My husband looked at me in suspense and continued to watch. As the show unraveled, the homicide investigator came to believe that she was guilty of killing her husband — that it wasn’t “self-defense”. I completely concurred as I, too, watched the evidence. The case went to the D.A. The D.A. decided to prosecute the case and the state appointed an attorney to the woman.

The state offered her a plea bargain. She declined it — and swears by her innocence. Before trial, I told him she’d take it. She was falling apart and it was because she couldn’t handle lying in front of all these people (a judge and 12 jurors). She wasn’t capable of going on anymore with it. The stress of her lie was sending her over the edge.

She took the plea bargain last minute for second degree murder. She is serving 10-25 years.

I am just bursting inside!! I know I can help people. I can help police, homicide detectives, attorneys — anyone who needs to see the truth. I just don’t know how to “sell” myself — though I will work for free. It’s not about money.

“Hey, Mr. Police Investigator, I can see lies. Do you want me to help you?”

YEAH RIGHT!

I may just get locked up for sounding insane! Actually, I probably get tagged a lunatic.

Damn. This is frustrating!

How can I go about this without sounding like a freak? I’m not a freak. I have a legitimate ability to see something to a degree most people cannot.

Can you spot a lie?

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Here is a test for you. Nothing scientific, but fun.

It’s a pretty easy test as it was designed for young high school kids –so keep that in mind but nonetheless give it a go!

On average, people can spot lies in real life about 50% of the time. I suspect most people will probably fair even better on this test as it is basic and doesn’t involve real people in action.

Tell me how you did!

When my husband tells a lie…

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Early on in our marriage, it didn’t take me long to figure out that when my husband told a lie, he curled his lower lip. It became rather humorous because it happened most often during dinner.

I’d make something I thought was really wonderful. We sit down to eat, and I’d look over at him. He would take a bite, act like it was good and then when I’d ask him what he really thought sensing something was up, he’d say, “I like it. It’s good” while at the same time curling his lower lip down and out.

You know that expression most people make when they mean to say, “I don’t know.” Often times they shrug their shoulders with the curled lip.

Just strangely my husband didn’t shrug his shoulders with the curled lip, he’d try to recover, smile and say he liked it. It didn’t add up.

The curled lip became an obvious sign he didn’t want to fess up to the truth — that dinner — or whatever the topic of discussions was — wasn’t as good as he had hoped for. It was just “okay” but he didn’t want to hurt my feelings.

Unfortunately, I’ve trained my husband well now. I’ve pointed it so many times, that he is conscious not to do it anymore — and when he slips up and I tell him — he just breaks out laughing. I shouldn’t have done what I did. Now I have to work harder at sensing what he really means though I still think I do go a good job. I usually sniff him out anyway 🙂

About Me…

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Scroll down to read ‘My Story’
_________________________________________

I’m a Truth Wizard & one of the real“naturals”
as depicted on “Lie to Me”
(studied by science)

Read about how I spot lies here

Fox’s New Drama based on real life Human Lie Detectors
“Lie to Me”

__________________________________________

My Story

Being able to see lies is a peculiar thing. At first, I had no idea that I was unique. It was something I grew into over time. I slowly realized that what I can see, others cannot. It wasn’t like I had a revelation one day that I was a human lie detector. Nothing could be further from the truth. I didn’t know that I could spot lies. For me, I just very slowly began to see over the years as I grew up that I was exceptionally skilled at reading people.

I’d watch perfect strangers, and tell friends about what I’d see just as matter-of-fact conversation. I enjoyed reading others, and so I would share it. I’d identify falsehoods people would tell, personality traits and attributes without even knowing people–thinking that others would see them, too (here is one story as an example).

I was always surprised that no one else saw what I saw.

My friends would stare back at me in disbelief. They’d either give me eyes of distrust, or they’d tell me I was crazy, over-analyzing everything. Or they’d think I was making it all up, until what I’d say would prove to be true, over and over again, and then friends were either in awe, speechless, or didn’t know how to respond. Some would pester me, question me, and want to know how I could see all these things that they couldn’t. Others would quietly retreat, and not want to discuss it. They’d feel inadequate because they knew they couldn’t see what I could.

Of course, when I was asked how I did it, I didn’t have an answer. I just could. It got to the point that I scared friends with secrets away from me.

People loved to say, “Oh, you must be psychic.” I wasn’t psychic, and I grew tired of people calling me psychic over the years, trying to explain why I could see so much, because I knew that wasn’t it. I knew what I saw was based on concrete, real things, and nothing magical, but I just couldn’t explain it.

At that time, I just rationalized to myself that I understood people more than the average person, that perhaps I was a natural-born psychologist, but there had to be plenty of other people like me who could do the same thing, so I set out on a mission to find them.

For five years, I kept trying to find someone else like me–to no avail. This endless search frustrated me. I couldn’t find anyone who could relate to the “true” me. At times, it was isolating and lonely.

Why was I so different? Why did I understand others more than most people?

It wasn’t until October of 2004 that I finally found a possible explanation for why. I found an article on MSNBC talking about deception detection (truth) wizards. Wizards were people who could detect a lie with incredible accuracy–at least of 80% of the time–whereas the average person can only detect lies between 45-55% of the time. These wizards made up less than 1% of the people tested.

This article stopped me dead in my tracks. I remember my heart racing. I was thinking, could this be it? I had an innate sense that it was. It all added up. It all made sense. But could I see lies, and how good was I?

That day was an epiphany for me, and the beginning of a major paradigm shift for me as well. It was pivotal in understanding “why” I was so different. When I plugged in that I could spot deception, everything that was unexplainable in my life became explainable. What didn’t make sense to me–suddenly made sense. Everything around me started to change, and while I didn’t find out I was a wizard for two more years, I gained confidence that I did, in fact, share the ability.

Prior to reading about this study, I honestly had no idea I was good at deception detection. I never took interest in it, never read about it or studied it. I never made the connection that my skills of understanding people translated into the ability to spot lies. Yes, I spotted lies, but so did everyone else, from time-to-time, so it wasn’t notable for me.

Since finding this article back in October of 2004, I put myself to the test, and continue to do so today. I wanted to find out where on the continuum I stood. I had no idea. I knew I was better than average, but that was all I knew. In 21 months of testing myself, I became shocked at my accuracy level. I was nearly certain I was above 80%.

I was correct. I participated in the study of wizards by Dr. Maureen O’Sullivan at the University of San Francisco in August 2006, and I was identified as a truth wizard. Dr. O’Sullivan actually came out to meet me, and studied how I came to the conclusions I came to. It was fascinating that I was the subject of further deception detection research. Scientists are using Truth Wizards to expand their understanding of how to spot a liar.

I think my strongest skill is my innate ability to understand human behavior, and seeing lies is just a sub-skill of that. When I see a face of a stranger in a photograph or meet a stranger, I get an immediate sense of their personality. I can tell you 20 things about someone just from a photograph, or a brief encounter without words. This is the skill that I think sets me a part and makes me able to discern deception so quickly, and much of that ability, from my attempt to understand it, I suspect occurs in the subconscious of my brain.

When I see a face, my brain immediately remembers, without any thought on my part, the name of someone who resembles this stranger, and I immediately have a framework and baseline understanding of someone without any words exchanged. This is what gives me the edge at understanding people, and spotting lies.

So come along with me as I journey forward in this discovery. I will blog, and explore it more now that I can define it. I will post how I see the world, when I see questionable things, and what I make of it all.

You can help me, too! By leaving a comment, in support or against my postings, you are helping me create a historical record. Your comments show time and date stamps, and your opinion verifies my position so that people can’t accuse me of changing my mind. Leaving an e-mail behind would be nice 🙂 in case we need to verify what people actually said down the road.

My goal is to have a blog that accurately identifies my skills so that I can take this to another level and utilize my skills for the benefit of people and society in a positive and valuable way.

Visit my Website