Visibly annoyed judge bans radio reporter from courtroom |
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SAN DIEGO — As jurors deliberated David Westerfield's fate for a fourth day, the judge angrily denied a banned radio reporter's attempt to get back in the courtroom. "She's out and will remain out," said Superior Court Judge William Mudd during a hearing Tuesday morning. He said neither KFMB reporter River Stillwood nor any representative of the station's daytime talk program, The Rick Roberts Show, will be allowed in his court for the capital murder verdict. He also barred reporters from the show from participating in courtroom interviews with jurors after the verdict.
The judge booted Stillwood from her seat in the front of the courtroom Aug. 8, the day after the station broadcast an apparently accurate account of a closed hearing between Mudd and the lawyers in the case. The hearing concerned, in part, an encounter between the victim Danielle van Dam's father and the parents of defense attorney Steven Feldman. Mudd ordered Stillwood to reveal the source of the leak and when she said she did not know, he asked her to leave the courtroom. Joann Rezzo, an attorney for the radio station, argued for Stillwood to be permitted back in court, saying the reporter had no idea who the source of the information was and in any case, was protected from revealing her sources by the state reporter's shield law.
The lawyer suggested the judge "talk to people who were actually present in the court at the time to find out who the source was." Mudd acknowledged that an internal investigation was underway, but said Stillwood would remain out. He blasted the station and particularly Roberts, who he referred to repeatedly but never by name. "(Stillwood) is the representative of an individual who takes great glee and delight in shoving it in the court's face," said Mudd. Stillwood is permitted in the media room adjacent to the courtroom, where she can watch the proceedings on closed-circuit television. The station is selling "Free River" T-shirts on its Web site. The judge also announced Tuesday morning that jurors sent a note requesting the audio tape and transcript of a police interview with Westerfield Feb. 4, three days after Danielle vanished from her room. In the interview, Westerfield recounts his alibi for the days after her disappearance — a circuitous 560-mile trip in his recreational vehicle. At one point while describing the solo trip, Westerfield used the plural "we" instead of "I," a slip the prosecution said revealed his consciousness of guilt. "This little place we were, we were at was just a small turn-off type place," Westerfield told police interrogation specialist Paul Redden. |
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