Judge Mudd Says Sequestering Of Jury Possible: Van Dam case has jurors facing more Mad-Dawgging!!

Judge William D. Mudd chastises the media and threatens to cut off video and still-photo coverage David Westerfield's murder trial Thursday, July 25, 2002, in San Diego. Mudd said the problem was due to a security breech when an unnamed person followed some jurors to their vehicles and wrote down license numbers. Westerfield is accused of the kidnapping and murder of seven-year old Danielle van Dam. (AP Photo/Dan Trevan,POOL)

The judge in the David Westerfield trial rejected another defense request to sequester the jury but said he still considers it "a possible option."

Superior Court Judge William Mudd said he didn't think it was necessary at the moment but has asked the county to prepare "a back-up contingency plan" just in case.

Westerfield's lawyers have asked several times for jury sequestration, and they renewed their request yesterday. Lead defense lawyer Steven Feldman said he worried that the jury might be affected by the publicity in the Samantha Runnion kidnap-murder case in Orange County.

Feldman cited comments made by Samantha's mother about Alejandro Avila, the man charged with kidnapping and killing the 5-year-old girl. In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Erin Runnion blamed her daughter's death on a jury that acquitted Avila of child molestation charges two years ago.

Feldman said he worried that jurors in the Westerfield case might hear about the interview and feel pressured to convict his client, who is charged with kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam of Sabre Springs.

The judge said he would remind jurors about news coverage they should avoid. He also said he talked to them about sequestration last week after receiving reports that someone in the media followed some of the jurors to their cars and wrote down their license plates.

"They're a hearty group and they didn't appear to be intimidated by what occurred, and I continue to believe in their integrity," the judge said yesterday.

With the trial in recess for a day, lawyers spent yesterday discussing legal instructions to give to the jury before they begin deliberations. It seems likely that testimony will continue into next week.

Prosecutors are expected to finish their rebuttal evidence today, at which point the defense will put on evidence to rebut the prosecution's rebuttal. One possible defense witness probably won't be called until Monday, Feldman told the judge yesterday.

Posted: 7:40 a.m. PDT April 18, 2002
Updated: 11:33 a.m. PDT April 18, 2002
SAN DIEGO -- A judge Thursday will consider a request by lawyers representing David Westerfield to review the personnel records of 13 officers involved in the investigation of Danielle van Dam's abduction and murder -- that's after he reviews the files himself.

http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/sand/news/stories/news-140532820020418-090423.html

In court documents, defense attorney Robert Boyce said that police ignored his client's requests for a lawyer and questioned him abusively following the 7-year-old's disappearance.

In the days after the second-grader vanished, police were so rough in their questioning that Westerfield "stated that he thought he was abused and all that was missing were the bright lights and a rubber hose," Boyce said in the documents.

The documents maintain that after Westerfield became a suspect, police interrogated him for nine straight hours, ignoring his repeated requests to speak with a lawyer, sleep, make telephone calls, shower, change clothes and halt the interview, according to the documents.

"I asked you to get me a lawyer. Bring me a lawyer in here. Bring the D.A. in. Bring somebody in I can talk to. ... You're asking me to admit to something," Westerfield told police detectives during one interview, the court documents state.

"As far as I'm concerned, I didn't do it. I know that you're adamant that I did."
Westerfield's trial is scheduled to begin on May 17.

Boyce and defense attorney Steven Feldman especially want Superior Court Judge William Mudd to look at records of complaints against detectives Mark Keyser and Mike Ott, who they allege have a history of "dishonesty and excessive force."

Ott and Keyser interviewed Westerfield two days after the girl disappeared and accompanied him on the 600-mile route he said he traveled the weekend Danielle van Dam turned up missing.

They also tried to visit Westerfield in jail the day after the victim's body was found.

Feldman and Boyce want Mudd to review records regarding aggressive conduct or violation of constitutional or statutory rights, including Miranda rights and rights to counsel, in interviewing suspects and witnesses.

Ott and Keyser previously "violated a suspect's constitutional rights, used excessive force and lied," according to a document from Feldman and Boyce.

I belive after this kind of treatment I would get a severe attitude problem as I belive DW did.
Anyone have a working trial link?

~new news~

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/724703/posts

DAYTON | The 36-year-old Arizona man charged Saturday with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl aboard a Greyhound bus that stopped in Dayton and Springfield might face a mandatory sentence of life in prison. That fate will depend on whether John Clarence Golden Jr. has been convicted of prior sex offenses. On Saturday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz ordered that Golden be held without bail until a preliminary detention hearing set for 10 a.m. today on a charge of crossing a state line with intent to engage in a sexual act with a person under the age of 12. If convicted, Golden would face a mandatory life sentence if he has prior sex offenses.

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Judge says sequestering of jury possible