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Judge Mudd Refuses Sequester Plea: Westerfield Jury Verdict In Sep? (Aug. 16th Verdict Watch)
Union Trib ^ | August 15, 2002 | Jeff Dillion/Steve Perez

Posted on 08/16/2002 6:39:20 AM PDT by FresnoDA

Judge denies defense motion to sequester jury

By Jeff Dillon and Steve Perez
SIGNONSANDIEGO

August 15, 2002

Judge William D. Mudd addressed counsel on a motion by defense attorney Steven Feldman regarding media access to jurors in the trial of defendant David Westerfield at San Diego courthouse, August 15, 2002. Westerfield is accused of the kidnapping and murder of seven-year old Danielle van Dam from her Sabre Springs home, last February.  REUTERS/POOL/Dan TrevanArguing 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."

 

'Broccoli heads'

He cited an incident earlier in the week in which radio talk show hosts from KFI-AM 640 in Los Angeles broadcast from outside the courthouse, waving stalks of broccoli around and reportedly calling jurors "broccoli heads" for being unable to return a quick guilty verdict.

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.

 

Trust in the jury

Mudd dismissed most of Feldman's concerns, saying that the jurors had only asked a bailiff to keep reporters a little bit farther away, though an alternate juror reported that he or she had been followed to his car.

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.

 

'The activities of a few'

"The tragedy is, the majority of the people in this courtroom are abiding by the court's orders and working very hard to insure they, meaning the media, do not cause something to occur that is going to cause a mistrial," Mudd said. "Not all of them feel that way as is very apparent with the activities of a few."

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:

 



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To: CAPPSMADNESS
Yes, I had thought about that even fairly early on... I had the misfortune to witness some quite far-gone bodies bagged at the scene. Stuff does tend to fall off, and has to be scooped up and into the bag. :(
841 posted on 08/16/2002 9:06:34 PM PDT by wonders
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To: KnutCase
Phew! Just me..must be PMS! :-)
Considering how the pros. had the supposed dog expert, that never really did get a scent & may have been led to DW's MH by the 'trainer'...the thought crossed my mind that maybe Feldman would have pointed out that the pros. dogs found nothing...(there could be a few jurors that are slow to get things sometimes, like yours truly!)

842 posted on 08/16/2002 9:06:49 PM PDT by domestice
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To: KnutCase
They did. They took one of his shoes.
843 posted on 08/16/2002 9:07:19 PM PDT by Jaded
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To: wonders; CAPPSMADNESS
"AGAIN, IN MY EXPERIENCE WITH ANIMALS FEEDING, USUALLY THEY WILL COME IN AND FEED RATHER EARLY ON THE FRESHER TISSUES, NOT -- I DON'T THINK THAT THE ANIMALS, THE CARNIVORES, WOULD WAIT UNTIL THAT TISSUE IS TOO BADLY MUMMIFIED BECAUSE IT'S HARD TO CHEW, HARD TO TEAR OFF"

HI guys...Ok, I appreciate that wonders cuz it really is harder to wade through then the rest of the testimony.

Capps, wrt:only the face and hands being mummified..even the ME examiner agreed that ALL the skin "that remained" was mummified..(see my earlier excerpts from ME's testimony. He said the body could have been there up to 3 1/2 weeks.. The anthropologist who studies mummification said 4-6 weeks: See that excerpt here..and that the exact date isn't an exact science.

The body was found on the 27th
MEDICAL EXAMINER
3 1/2 weeks = 21 + 3.5 days = 24.5 days

ANTHROPOLOGIST
4 - 6 weeks = 28 - 42 days

_____

The people who studied bodies have more to say than bugs..before you say that's a week argument...the testimony shows the following:

Goff, the professor from HA said that bugologists are unable to give exact dates.
The defense witness from missouri has never seen a body in the condition danielle's was in...so how can he tell.. (see transcripts)
I dont' remember how many times haskill said he has spent on mummified remains.

I think that why it's so hard to understand is the mummification factor---none of the expert witnesses with the exception of the anthropologist have spent that much time on mummifed bodies in that condition. Unless someone can show different.

844 posted on 08/16/2002 9:08:14 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: CAPPSMADNESS
To do so would be a very awful thing indeed! which makes me doubt that it happened

Agreed. Most unpleasant. Which is why I've always thought it unlikely. Although I've read of cases where the perp did it. (Can't imagine it, but lots of things I can't imagine.)

845 posted on 08/16/2002 9:08:32 PM PDT by wonders
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To: wonders; CAPPSMADNESS
YAWN..it's getting late--should have read

The people who studied bodies have more to say than those who studied bugs..before you say that's a weak argument...

846 posted on 08/16/2002 9:09:51 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: John Jamieson
you mean where those two girls were abducted and killed? The ones that were found naked in watery ditches, except for a sock on their left foot?
847 posted on 08/16/2002 9:10:15 PM PDT by pinz-n-needlez
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
But what about the testimony that stated, dehydration etc slows down the decaying process?

The body wasn't desiccated, Kimmy. They recovered some 180ml of fluid from the lung cavity IIRC. Unless they stuck her body in a drying oven and weighed her before and after, there is no telling how much moisture was still available.

Hands, foot, ears. Low fat/low water mass. those will mummify quickly.
The odd thing is no (or very few) insects in the braincase, It should have been infested with maggots but it wasn't.

And nobody has testified that the brain was mummified or dryed-out.

848 posted on 08/16/2002 9:10:29 PM PDT by dread78645
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To: All
If anyone has a way to clip an image out of adobe please go here to the very bottom and clip and post the two drycleaner receipts:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/danielle/transcripts/westerfield_003.pdf
Thanks
849 posted on 08/16/2002 9:11:47 PM PDT by clearvision
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To: JudyB1938
"I have to give you one on that, Kimmie. I, too, have wondered why there were no children called to testify about playing in the MH. In fact, I was very disappointed that Feldman failed to address many of the issues that FReepers have been discussing. But, like I said before, his hands were tied almost the whole trial by that biased Muddy Duddy.--Judy "

Honestly, as much as feldman tried to get us to believe that she was in the MH for innocent reasons..he simply couldn't do it. He insinuated it...by showing it was left unlocked..but that's not enough IMHO. Can't wait to hear what the jury has to say about it!

850 posted on 08/16/2002 9:13:37 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
MEDICAL EXAMINER 3 1/2 weeks = 21 + 3.5 days = 24.5 days

Actually, the ME said 6 weeks to ten days.

Goff, the professor from HA said that bugologists are unable to give exact dates

Not one of the forensic experts gave an exact date. All have overlapping estimates of PMI, however, except for the ding-dong "mummyologist." There is concordance among the four bug guys and the ME.

The mummy guy had Danielle selling cookies to DW as a, well, a mummy!

851 posted on 08/16/2002 9:14:21 PM PDT by wonders
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To: the-gooroo
SD TV internet article.

No results equals NO testimony.....

.....don't want to bother the jury with exculpatory evidence, you know.
852 posted on 08/16/2002 9:18:14 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: dread78645
"This fellow also said the mummification would be well under progress within 24 hours. Problem is that the blowflys will be laying eggs with in the first 20 minutes to an hour."

Yes he did...That's assuming she was thrown there within the first 24 hrs.. I know no one can have all the answers on either side..and that's what makes it so difficult.

I have kept in the back of my mind that people can be convicted without a body. That's why it's not so hard to believe in some of the evidence. I recall the testimony (sorry I've forgotten which witness) who was asked if she could have started to dehydrate in a bag in a storage compartment..I don't know if thejudge allowed the answer, but I remember the witness said "yes".

853 posted on 08/16/2002 9:18:34 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: BARLF
Hi BARLF. Thanks so much. I can't believe this wasn't pounded on by Feldman. DW was definitely their main suspect by then. There's no way that dog would not have picked up his scent on Tuesday if he had abducted her. Weeks after Chandra Levy went missing, dogs picked up her scent out on the sidewalk in front of her apartment.
854 posted on 08/16/2002 9:18:43 PM PDT by the-gooroo
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To: CAPPSMADNESS
I don't think she was at Dehesa until 2/14-2/18. I think she was somewhere else before that but not in the elements. A cabin maybe, a deserted pump house. Any number of places really.
855 posted on 08/16/2002 9:19:10 PM PDT by Jaded
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To: dread78645
The odd thing is no (or very few) insects in the braincase, It should have been infested with maggots but it wasn't.

Based on the testimony of Faulkner and Haskell, what I think probably happened: The first wave of flies on day one laid eggs in the natural openings of the head (ears, nose, mouth) and even more so, in the urogenital region. As the ears and facial areas dried out on days two, three and four, the successive waves in the of flies primarily laid eggs in the urogenital area and in openings created by the coyotes. Therefore, at the autopsy, there was a "maggot mass" in the abdominal area, but not in the head. The maggots in the head area (too few in number to form a "mass") then migrated to the warmth of the maggot mass (which generates its own heat) in abdominal area when the body was placed in the morgue.

I like Haskell's explanation -- makes lots of sense:

A THE TESTIMONY OF ONE OF THE INVESTIGATORS SHOWED THAT THERE WERE SOME MAGGOTS IN THE HEAD AREA. BUT WHEN DAVID FAULKNER WENT TO MAKE THE COLLECTION AT THE AUTOPSY, HE FOUND THAT THERE WERE NO MAGGOTS IN THE HEAD AREA AND ONLY A CONSIDERABLE MAGGOT MASS IN THE ABDOMINAL AREA, PELVIC AREA OF THE REMAINS. MY CONCLUSION ON THAT WAS THE FACT THAT THERE WERE -- THE FLIES MOST LIKELY DID TRY TO LAY THEIR EGGS. MOTHER FLY TRIED TO LAY SOME EGGS IN THE HEAD AREA. AND A FEW OF THEM PROBABLY MADE IT. BUT WHEN THE BODY WENT INTO THE MORGUE AND COOLED DOWN, THE FEW MAGGOTS THAT WERE UP IN THE HEAD AREA DIDN'T HAVE THE MAGGOT MASS AGGREGATION TO GENERATE THIS HEAT THAT IS PRESENT. AND SO THEY PROBABLY WENT TO -- I THINK IT'S POSSIBLE THAT THEY TRIED TO SEEK WHERE THIS HEAT WAS PRESENT IN THIS PELVIC AREA WHERE THE MAGGOT MASS WAS PRESENT AND PROBABLY JOINED THEIR FELLOW MAGGOTS DOWN THERE.

856 posted on 08/16/2002 9:19:57 PM PDT by wonders
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To: wonders
LOL!

I got the ME's testimony from preliminary transcripts. Did he change it for the hearing? It says up to 3 1/2 weeks. Click the link to see for yourself.
857 posted on 08/16/2002 9:20:05 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: NatureGirl
that were going to testilie...Was that a typo?

Testilie: Definition; A curious but well known (although not acknowleged) condition where an otherwise honest LE officer will, while on the stand, repeatedly recall previous events much differantly than the way things actually happened.

858 posted on 08/16/2002 9:20:25 PM PDT by alexandria
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To: Dave_in_Upland
because she and DW were having a daytime secret affair? ...

... and she surely would not confess to such a thing and ruin her reputation.

B | N > K

( Beer Beverage, Nose, Keyboard)

859 posted on 08/16/2002 9:20:52 PM PDT by dread78645
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
I did read it kim, not sure what you are trying to do here, and not going to take the bait either. The "mummy doctor" stated that all skin that remained was mummified, then that means that what was mummified were the extremeties and parts of the face - if rest was not mummified, then it in fact DECAYED and therefor could not have been mummified. I never discounted anything he said, I tend to look at all of the evidence, not just what I want to gleen for my personal purposes.If wonder and I are bothering you by our polite discussion, then please skip our posts.
860 posted on 08/16/2002 9:21:09 PM PDT by CAPPSMADNESS
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