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Documents detail police suspicions Westerfield was 'Peeping Tom'

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/danielle/20030109-9999-westerfield_documents.html

By Steve Perez
SIGNONSANDIEGO

January 9, 2003

One of some 1,200 pages of court documents relating to the murder and kidnapping case against David Westerfield that were released Thursday.

Police suspected David Westerfield was a 'Peeping Tom' who spied on neighbors using binoculors, videotaped them from afar, and secretly recorded himself and a woman having sex, according to court records unsealed in his murder trial on Thursday.

The allegations were included in volumes of motions made public by Superior Court Judge Mudd.

The suspicions were contained in a prosecution effort to present the evidence to the jury, stating it was relevant to the case.

Last Friday, Mudd sentenced Westerfield to death for kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, his neighbor in Sabre Springs.

View April 29, 2002, prosecution motion detailing 'Peeping Tom' allegation against Westerfield
PDF document
View April 22, 2002, prosecution motion detailing rape allegation, information on "Jenny N." allegation.
PDF document

Other documents released January 9, 2003

From the U-T: Westerfield failed polygraph test badly

(The FREE Adobe Acrobat plug-in is necessary to view the above documents.)

The unsealed prosecution papers shed some light on a puzzling question in the case, how Westerfield was able to sneak into the van Dam's home and take the girl while her family slept.

"The first question that comes to mind is how did he know where to go," prosecutors stated in the filing. "The answer is that he is a 'Peeping Tom' and very likely scouted out the van Dam residence prior to entering."