Arguing that media coverage was creating a "lynch mob mentality" that could pressure jurors to return a guilty verdict, the defense attorney for David Westerfield today asked the judge yet again to sequester the jury. Posted on 08/16/2002 6:39:20 AM PDT by FresnoDA
August 15, 2002
Arguing that media coverage was creating a "lynch mob mentality" that could pressure jurors to return a guilty verdict, the defense attorney for David Westerfield today asked the judge yet again to sequester the jury.
While the jury completed its first week of deliberations without a verdict, Superior Court Judge William Mudd denied the request and a related motion to "pull the plug" on television and radio coverage of the courtroom proceedings, but agreed to set aside a private room for jurors to take breaks. Defense attorney Steven Feldman had argued that reports suggested jurors felt like they were under siege, unable to leave their deliberating room, go to lunch or walk home without being watched or followed.
"We have no assurance that they are not be intimidated ... by the presence of the media," Feldman told Mudd during a morning hearing. "We can think of only one fair resolution to that: Get the jury out of harm's way."
Westerfield, 50, could face the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping 7-year-old Danielle van Dam from her family's Sabre Springs home on Feb. 2 and killing her. Jurors are in their sixth day of deliberations.
Lead prosecutor Jeff Dusek disagreed with Feldman's interpretations of the jury's complaints.
"Whether or not any guilty verdict in this case would be based on a siege mentality or the meida I think is pure speculation and utterly false in this case," Dusek said.
What the jurors had complained about was being watched all the time, he said.
"That hardly equates to being under siege," he said.
Media coverage has diminished since the jurors began deliberating, the judge said.
"The synopsis programs on the two local TV networks are not in place," he said. "The talking heads are doing nothing but speculating about what the jury may or may not be thinking."
Mudd said there were no signs that jurors were being harassed by the public, especially since their names and faces haven't been publicized.
"We've all sat here and picked this jury, know their makeup and know their dedication to this cause," Mudd said. "I would prefer to think that any verdict they make in this case would be based upon the evidence."
Sequestering the jury also wouldn't protect them from any public reaction to the verdict, Mudd said.
Mudd took aim at two radio program hosts from Los Angeles who he previously described as "idiots."
"I suppose it's entertainment out of LA. I hope it stays in LA," he said. "The shows those two gentlemen put on made the court incredulous as to what they were attempting to do."
Mudd also announced:
On July 9, Shen's testimony interrupted presentation of defense witnesses. Shen, a San Diego police criminalist, testified about re-examining a group of fibers she had collected from Westerfield's 4Runner in February.
The orange acrylic fibers, found in various places inside the SUV, were the same color and fabric as a fiber tangled in a plastic necklace that Danielle was wearing when authorities found her body in a hollow off Dehesa Road, Shen testified at the time.
All the fibers looked identical under a microscope and appeared to have the same chemical makeup when tested using infrared technology, she said.
Shen said the fibers seem "most likely to have come from something that was very loosely knit," such as a sweater or blanket.
"You folks are going to deal with my PR person. You're going to leave my bailiff and my clerk alone," Mudd told reporters in the courtroom. "One statement leads to 60 questions that they're not going to answer and neither am I."
Mudd decided to turn the daily updates over to the court's public information officer after deciding that an informal system set up to have a bailiff or court clerk provide updates had failed.
"There was a simple note that they started at 9, they left at 4 left you chomping on bit to get copies," He said. "You're welcome to them, they'll be available as soon as we gett the minute order."
Reporters and members of the public will not be informed immediately about notes passed by the jury, Mudd said. The judge said he had procedure to follow, that includes notifying the attorneys involved in the case about the note and determining the appropriate response.
"This is a capital case and you go by steps," Mudd said.
No just a retired school teacher land barron :)
I work in the medical field and have worked in trauma centers, funeral homes and with the county ME back home. Two of my older brothers are LE (a captain and a detective) and my cousin is an attorney - we have really racked up the phone bill dollars discussing this case! And there is no clear consensus between the 4 of us - except that all of the evidence and persons involved should have been investigated and NO ONE should have been cleared within 24 hours.
Although expert opinion from you and your cousin is worth a million, it's your two LE brothers who really give me a chill. I don't think I have to expound on what I mean, either.
If true, that would be very revealing.
Maybe DVD didn't go to Big Bear on Friday, because he knew that Barb would not be up there.
It's not the age of the sample, it is exposure to various chemicals and radiation plus the length of time exposed.
Some pair sequences will degrade faster than others.
A (maybe) good analogy is a painting.
Some colors will fade quickly when exposed to sunlight. Other colors degrade due to air-pollution. At some point you'll have trouble discerning the blue from the green.
So the sample in the drain trap would have been exposed to soap, hot water, and any cleansers. It's reasonable that bits of markers aren't there --or so degraded that the test result is inconclusive.
I really don't remember, but he had been in pretty serious trouble.
And do you know why he was acquitted?
The jury just didn't believe they made a case. Neither did I.
Is the inconclusive DNA testing the reason he was acquitted?
NO. DNA was not in vogue at the time tests were done 10 or 15
years later. My guess is if that he would have been released
today with that finding. There has been many books written
on this case lot of varied opinions.
There is a witness that swears he dropped 3 people off near the camp that night, but he has been totally ignored. People tried
to get a grand jury started, but they had lots of road blocks from
authorities.
As for Gene Hart, this viral young Indian that had evaded hundreds
of people searching the woods for him, conviently died of a
massive heart attack, while in prison.
The FBI, Special forces, OCB, Special dogs, helicopters with
super secret infrared detectors, and this clever Indain survived
in the woods living off the land. Or so the story went.
He himself said in the only interview with him after the trial
that he slept in a bed every night. This was a really big media
event, they had to have someone so.....
The theory that he went into the tent and killed three girls and dragged them out into the woods all by himself just never washed with me nor the jury apparently. Bur hey, they closed the case
and that is what it is all about, I guess.
Sad but true, can't be cluttering up the minds of those young people
memorizing all those useless facts.
I was in Tulsa for the month of July, it got pretty hot there, of course
I do live in the desert here so I was used to it :)
Swinging sex, child porn, and now perverted isotopes ?
Hmmmmm ...
I thought he was trying to sneak in more fibre evidence.
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