Haidl Judge to Stay on Underage-Sex Case

A judge on Friday denied a defense motion to recuse the judge set to hear pretrial matters in the illegal sex case of Gregory Haidl.

Haidl is also awaiting retrial on an unrelated charge that he and two friends raped an unconscious girl two years ago.

Haidl’s attorneys had asked that Judge Luis A. Rodriguez remove himself from the trial because he has been named in a lawsuit involving the case.

Rodriguez had authorized prosecutors to obtain DNA from the 16-year-old girl alleged to have had sex in July with 19-year-old Haidl, despite her desire not to cooperate with officials. Her lawyer has since sued the Orange County district attorney’s office.