Posted on 08/13/2002 10:12:33 PM PDT by FresnoDA
SIGNONSANDIEGO STAFF
and WIRE SERVICES
August 13, 2002
The fourth day of deliberations in the David Westerfield trial has ended with no conclusion by the jury. The jury will resume deliberations Wednesday morning at the San Diego County Courthouse. Earleir today, jurors asked to hear Westerfield's only recorded explanation of what he was doing the weekend 7-year-old Danielle van Dam was kidnapped.
Superior Court Judge William Mudd said he was granting a request from the jury for a tape recording and transcript of the taped interview Westerfield gave to police interrogation specialist Paul Redden on Feb. 4, two days after Danielle's disappearance.
During the interview, Westerfield makes a reference to "we" as he describes his meandering trip through San Diego and Imperial counties on Feb. 2 and Feb. 3.
"The little place we, we were at was just a little small turnoff-type place," Westerfield said.
Westerfield, 50, could face the death penalty if convicted of murder, kidnapping and a special circumstance allegation that the killing of Danielle van Dam occurred during the commission of kidnapping.
He is also accused of the misdemeanor possession of child pornography.
Jurors are in their fourth day of deliberations.
Mudd's disclosure came during a 10 a.m. open hearing on a request from KFMB-AM 760 to let River Stillwood, an assistant radio producer for talk show host Rick Roberts, back into the courtroom to cover the trial.
"She's out and will remain out and will not be permitted in for any live proceedings... because she is the representative of an individual who takes great glee and delight shoving it in this court's face," Mudd said.
Mudd ejected Stillwood from the courtroom on Thursday after asking her to tell him who told Roberts about the details of a Wednesday exchange between Mudd and the attorneys in the case during a sealed hearing.
Stillwood told Mudd that she didn't know who gave Roberts the information. On the air, Roberts later said he had received a call from a source in the courthouse.
The court is conducting an internal investigation, but cannot compel Roberts and Stillwood to name their source, Mudd said.
Stillwood can still sit in the pressroom and watch the video feed of any court activity, Mudd said.
KFMB was welcome to send someone else to sit in the courtroom, so long as the person was representing the radio station and not Roberts, he said.
KFMB's attorney Joann Rezzo argued that the disclosure did not violate the defendant's right to a fair trial. She also argued that Stillwood didn't give him "the source of the leak" because she didn't know who it was.
Before Mudd made his ruling, he invited comments from prosecutor Jeff Dusek, who managed only a wry remark.
"My inclination is to comment, but on advice of counsel, I I will submit," Dusek said, gesturing to his fellow prosecutor, Woody Clarke.
Defense attorney Robert Boyce told Mudd he was concerned about the integrity of proceedings. "They broadcast it, they knew what they were doing," Boyce said.
He called it "just another effort to sensationalize these proceedings."
Mudd told the media attorneys he welcomed the opportunity to make a "full and complete record" of his decision to eject Stillwood.
In his comments, Mudd made it clear he was still angry with KFMB television's decision to include a high school yearbook photo of Neal Westerfield during a telecast of the son of the defendant's testimony. Mudd had ordered that no television or print images of the adult, who is now 19, be transmitted.
The judge's inclination was to ban both the station's radio and TV representatives from the trial.
"Frankly, they seem to be the two networks in this community that just don't seem to get it," he said.
However, after his wife advised him to "sleep in it, " he gave the matter "serious thought," Mudd said.
He quoted a line from a Supreme Court decision in 1976 involving a press restraint issue in Nebraska.
" The extraordinary protections afforded by the First Amendment carry with them something in the nature of a fiduciary duty to exercise the protected rights responsibly--a duty widely acknowledged but not always observed by editors and publishers," Mudd said. "It is not asking too much to suggest that those who exercise First Amendment rights in newspapers or broadcasting enterprises direct some effort to protect the rights of an accused to a fair trial by unbiased jurors. "
Mudd said he was troubled by the host's decision to broadcast the information, knowing it was from a closed hearing.
The judge wasn't impressed by the host's justification that the general public was already aware of the issue, and that Stillwood was ignorant of the source.
He said the host wasn't conducting a search for the truth, but a grab for ratings. He also took the opportunity to lash out at "idiots from LA talk stations," who broadcast an afternoon program from a media compound outside the County courthouse. He said the members of the talk station were "acting like teen-agers" in front of the courthouse.
The judge acknowledged he could not control such behavior but could control his own courtroom.
The judge said officials from KFMB must be taking "great glee in shoving it in this court's face."
Fred D'Ambrosi, news director for KFMB-TV and Radio, said his television station showed only a high school yearbook photo of Westerfield's son.
"We didn't shoot him in court, which was the judge's order," D'Ambrosi said.
Regarding River Stillwood, D'Ambrosi said the issue was important because of the First Amendment and a free press. He added that he was not in charge of the Rick Roberts program.
"We're just trying to report the news and uphold the First Amendment," D'Ambrosi said. "If (Mudd) can ban River Stillwood, he can ban anybody." The news director suggested that the judge was angry because he didn't like the story that was reported.
D'Ambrosi said he had never spoken to Mudd, and called his reading of the situation "totally inaccurate."
Mudd said he had done a 180-degree turnaround on the issue of allowing cameras and reporters in the courtroom since deciding to allow Court TV to cover the trial live.
Here is the story on the picture. LE and Prosecutor tried to make the case that this picture showed DW was a child molestor. They had found this image on his computer. It was a picture of his girlfriends daughter. It was taken out by the pool. She is lying in a chair, in a bathing suit, suntanning, and her legs are spread over the sides of the chair. LOOKS BAD, right?
Well, if you only list to the LE and Prosecutor.
Here is the "REST OF THE STORY".
Turns out the picture was taken by her mother. Her mother sent the DIGITAL IMAGE via EMAIL to DW to see if he could use some software to CROP the image and get a better print, because she had shot the image off center. I.E. The girl's head was at the top and the 'lap' area was at the center of the image.
DW didn't even take the picture. NOTICE that PROSECUTION didn't mention that part.
Don't hold your breath. That whole landscape has been corrupt ever since La Jolla days.
Hint: mob money
Schizophrenic's rule: You can talk to your self. You can even answer. As long as your answer isn't "HUH?"
SO lets see..today I have been called NIAVE a SHEEPLE..LOL..what else...
Does anyone get what I am getting at? Or am I just too niave?
"I would seem that way, but no. Blood pressure drops to zero upon death, so no bleeding. (Except in the case of post-mortem wounds made underneath the body, in which case there may be some blood leaking out due to gravity.)"
But there would be something under the body had she indeed been dumped at the site after death. During Putrification, the body fluids mass in the lowest portions of the body, as this state progresses - these same body fluids eat their way through the tissues onto the ground beneath the body, leaving alomst a brown/black oil subtance beneath the body. It would have been detected by the forensics specialists.
OH MY GOD! That just makes my insides quiver. That's big bucks, talking about limo service. Rich guys going to those places to have a little "strange" stuff. We read about it happening in Thailand to little children - but happening right there in San Diego? Blows my mind! Oh, I know that club is supposedly for "swingers" - but I think it's for any damned thing they want!
How about Standard Procedure.
Had to do with Operation Candyman. Yes.
Sounds like SDPD has a very small bag of tricks that they just use over and over. I think if DW had handled them the way you did, no one on this forum would ever have heard of him.
sw
Oh, I am VERY aware that Doosuck was "making it up." (this applies to almost his whole case) I had heard though when he gave his re-enactment of the alleged assault, BVD ran sobbing out of the court room AGAIN. Staged, the whole dramatic sick scene was STAGED.
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