Posted on 08/27/2002 8:55:29 PM PDT by dread78645
The judge in the David Westerfield case said yesterday that he has decided which prosecution witnesses will be allowed to testify at the penalty phas e of the murder trial, but he refused to be specific.
Superior Court Judge William Mudd made his announcement following a closed-door hearing with the lawyers. He didn't identify the witnesses or the nature of their testimony. He simply said some prosecution witnesses "will testify, others will not".
Westerfield was convicted last week of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam. She was discovered missing from her bedroom Feb. 2; her body was found more than three weeks later in a brushy area off Dehesa Road in East County.
Tomorrow, the jury will begin hearing evidence on whether the 50-year-old Sabre Springs design engineer deserves the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Westerfield's lawyers objected to some, if not all, of the prosecution's witnesses. They also opposed airing a videotape of Danielle, which the judge will allow.
Westerfield's lawyers raised constitutional challenges to the death penalty. The judge said he will consider those arguments at a hearing today when he also is scheduled to decide whether to disallow still photography during the remainder of the trial.
The issue arose after a Union-Tribune photographer took a picture of Danielle's parents in the courtroom gallery as the jury returned its guilty verdicts.
The judge said photographer Dan Trevan violated a court rule that prohibits photographing spectators. The newspaper says the van Dams weren't spectators but witnesses who testified during the trial and who have been photographed frequently inside and outside court.
Brenda van Dam hopes to have the foundation running by Sept. 22, which would have been Danielle's eighth birthday.
"With all the other missing children, we felt there's got to be something we can do," said Susan Wintersteen, a van Dam family friend who is helping to organize the effort.
Danielle's parents are prohibited by a gag order from speaking to the news media about any issue related to their daughter until after the sentencing of David Westerfield.
A jury on Aug. 21 convicted Westerfield of kidnapping Danielle from her bedroom and killing her in February. The penalty phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
Brenda van Dam and five friends met over the weekend at Wintersteen's home, not far from where the girl was kidnapped, to work on the details of what is to become the Danielle Legacy Foundation.
Modeling their group on Mothers Against Drunk Driving, they plan to use the network of volunteers who helped in the search for Danielle to promote child safety and promote programs like the nationwide Amber Alert system, Wintersteen said.
The system, named in honor of Amber Hagerman, a Texas girl killed in 1996, is a way of quickly disseminating information about a missing child through news media and other outlets. It's used in more than a dozen states.
The San Diego effort follows other advocacy and safety groups born out of tragedy. They include the Laura Recovery Center, named for Laura Kate Smith, murdered in Friendswood, Texas, in 1997. The group fields volunteer searchers in child kidnapping cases.
Laura Recovery coordinated thousands of searchers after Danielle was reported missing Feb. 2. One of the volunteers found her body along a rural road nearly a month after the abduction.
Marc Klaas created the Klaaskids Foundation, after his daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and murdered in Northern California in 1993. Another group is named for Carole Sund, who was killed with her daughter, Juli, and the girl's friend Silvina Pelosso while they were visiting Yosemite National Park in 1999.
"A lot of families tend to start an organization in their loved ones memory, so there are a lot of them out there," said Kim Petersen of the Carole Sund Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, based in Modesto. "It can be very healing."
It can also be very difficult. Foundations trying to raise donations often find themselves competing with similar efforts or overshadowed by larger o rganizations, said Klaas, who lobbies, speaks on child safety and helps other groups.
Still, "There's always room for innovation, for fresh new ideas," Klaas said.
Wintersteen, whose daughter was in school and Brownies with Danielle, said one of the group's first efforts will be to distribute identification kits that parents can use to set aside their child's fingerprints, DNA and a recent photo.
Investigators had to scramble to collect such identifiers when Danielle disappeared in February.
"We still feel there is change that needs to be done," Wintersteen said.
WHen were they going to ITALY?
When was Damon and the boys going to go to the cabin at Big Bear with Bill LIbby?
Apparently the victims or their relatives, the LE's, the investigators, the experts, the Prosecutor, the DA, the JUDGE are all allowed to lie, under oath, and even if caught at it, it means they are TRUTHFUL HONEST PEOPLE.
If you are the defendant, your side must tell the complete truth, and even when proven accurate and true, it means you are a LOWLIFE SCUM LYING DOG.
That is how most of the US sees it, and how many of the posters on FR see it. I hope they like it when that 'practice' or precedent BITES THEM IN THE @ss!
I don't have a clue. Could it be she didn't get to go? Was left home with an aunt? Wonder if anyone else noticed or has a clue?
Remember MUDD said he wouldn't allow a MEMORIAL picture of Danielle to be placed in the courtroom, that that was prejudicial?
Hmmmmmmm........ Every picture of the courtroom I saw had 1 or two pictures of DANIELLE posted up in a very conspicuous place. So, MUDD musta (lied/changed his mind/been bought off/Pfingst has something on MUDD) !
And then the MUSIC VIDEO just about goes off the charts as far as prejudicial and providing a circus-like environment in a courtroom.
I have $25 bucks that says the real killer could walk into the courtroom, confess to the crime, provide proof, and 90% of the nation and posters on FR wouldn't believe it, would still demand DW's head on a stick.
I rode a horse of a different color. I mean I got on a thread involving a totally non-related subject (to this one).
I defended the poster of the ARTICLE, and the posters on that thread were so upset about me jumping into the thread and acting like "someone peed in my Cheerios".
Seems that it's ok for DISRUPTORS to jump in on the DW/VD threads and make personal insults, all while claiming how mean we are to them, but jump into one of their threads, even politely, and they SCREAM LIKE LITTLE BABIES.
BTW, I am trying to find out when the trip to Italy was. The trip to the CABIN was supposed to be FRIDAY, but BRENDA HAD to go out with Barb,Denise (even though she went out the weekend before with them, to the same place, using the same excuse), and DAMON had to postpone. Plans changed to them (Damon and the boys (it was a father-daughter snowboarding event) going on SUNDAY.
Just like everything else, the VD's are being allowed to CONTROL what is seen/what is hidden. I still say they can't produce the Passport photos of the boys, cause there aren't any. Either that or the photos show the boys hair being long enough to be undistinguishable from the hair found in the MH sink trap.
Dusek was playing his little mind game with DW's sister...(& I doubt the sister even realized it)
Whenever she related anything about DW's son or daughter......Dusek would lead her pointedly with..."and David got to ENJOY watching his daughter graduate....and David got to ENJOY seeing his son in the band....and David got to ENJOY making things with his kids..."
...do you catch my drift...
I say Dusek & Bren had this all prearranged......and she ON CUE tearfully left the courtroom, because ....she can't ENJOY watching Danielle grow up.
I say!!......We've watched the video & Brenda's tears for months......
...couldn't she have let DW have a few moments of uninterrupted grief from his sister.
But no, it's all about Brenda.....(not Danielle, mind you...but Brenda!)
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