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.
By Alex Roth
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 14, 2002
Jurors deliberating David Westerfield's fate have asked to review all the pornographic evidence, look at Westerfield's photos of his ex-girlfriend's daughter and listen to his tape-recorded interview with police.
The jury made the requests Friday, Monday and yesterday in notes sent to Superior Court Judge William Mudd. All the notes have been signed by juror #10, who is an accountant and the father of a newborn boy.
Also yesterday, the judge erupted at the media again, and refused to reverse his decision to ban a radio producer from the courtroom because her station reported details of a secret hearing in the case.
Mudd criticized several other media outlets for their coverage, referred to personalities from one Los Angeles radio station as "idiots," and said his opinion about the benefits of having cameras in his courtroom has changed "180 degrees" since the trial began.
The jury, which ended its fourth day of deliberations yesterday, sent two notes to the judge Friday, according to court records. "We request all available evidence with pornographic images," they requested in the first note. The second note said: "We request the photos of Danielle L."
The judge granted both requests. Hundreds of pornographic images, including pictures organized in binders and videos, have been introduced as evidence in the case. Prosecutors say a small portion of these images are child pornography.
Westerfield, 50, is charged with kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, who lived two doors away in Sabre Springs. Prosecutors say he is sexually attracted to young girls. Westerfield also faces misdemeanor charges of possessing child pornography.
Among the computer images seized from his house were photos of his ex-girlfriend's daughter, identified as Danielle L., in poses that prosecutors argue are sexually provocative. She is now 17.
On Monday the jury asked to rehear a recording of Westerfield's Feb. 4 interview with police interrogation specialist Paul Redden. In the interview, the tape of which was played at trial, Westerfield made a number of statements, including describing his whereabouts for that weekend. Danielle van Dam was reported missing two days before the interview.
The jury's request was granted, as was yesterday's request by the jury to review a transcript of that same interview. The jury has now deliberated more than 16 hours over four days, and the panel is scheduled to return at 9 a.m. today to continue.
Also yesterday, the judge refused to change his mind about banning an assistant radio producer from his courtroom for the remainder of the trial. River Stillwood, who works for Rick Roberts' talk show on KFMB-AM 760 radio, was kicked out after her boss reported details of a closed-door hearing involving the judge and lawyers in the case.
Citing a confidential source, Roberts reported that the hearing involved comments made by the father of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam toward the mother of Steven Feldman, the lead lawyer for Westerfield. Roberts later said Stillwood had nothing to do with the leak, which Roberts said came from a confidential source who called him.
Lawyers for the radio program wanted Mudd to reconsider his ruling. Mudd refused. He criticized the station for airing its report "within 45 minutes of the hearing." And he blasted the media for "using sources that violate the very integrity of this courtroom."
Lawyers for Roberts' show wouldn't comment yesterday on whether the station plans to appeal. In court, a lawyer for the show said reporters shouldn't be punished for exercising their First Amendment right to air newsworthy information.
Mudd said he is conducting an investigation to see who might have been the source of the leak. And citing the behavior of various news outlets, he said the case has caused him to change his mind about allowing cameras into his court. The Westerfield trial has been televised gavel to gavel.
Mudd also was upset that talk-show hosts for one Los Angeles radio station handed out stalks of broccoli near the courthouse. They said the broccoli was meant to symbolize what the hosts said are dim-witted jurors who haven't returned an early guilty verdict.
In an interview yesterday, Roberts said he obtained his information through a legitimate source. He said that whenever he receives such information, he makes a number of considerations before deciding whether to air it, including its reliability and its possible effect on the case.
Media advocates said the judge's comments reveal a fundamental misconception about the rights and responsibilities of the media.
"Reporters are not courtroom stenographers," said Terry Francke, a lawyer for the California First Amendment Coalition in Sacramento. "They're not subject to the content control of the court."
Just because a judge holds a secret hearing doesn't mean a reporter has an ethical duty to keep the information secret should the reporter learn the details through a legitimate source, Francke said. As a general rule, if the information is news, and if it was obtained through legal means, it gets reported as soon as possible, Francke said.
The press's job is to "print all the facts no matter what happens," Francke said.
San Diego attorney Mike Still, a former prosecutor who has been providing media commentary on the case, said of Mudd: "I think he's frustrated. He's got all these competing interests. He's got Westerfield's fair-trial and due-process rights. He's got the media's First Amendment rights. He's got the prosecution's fair-trial rights."
"Bad-doggie ! Brenda, hon, go get the steam-cleaner. The d@mn dog has a bladder the size of a basketball."
Jury reviews porn movies, photos |
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SAN DIEGO — Jurors deciding David Westerfield's fate have spent part of their deliberations reviewing pornographic movies depicting the rape of young girls. The panel of six men and six women, who began their fifth day of deliberations Wednesday, requested the pornography evidence seized from Westerfield's home. The request was made Friday morning, according to court minutes, and 35 minutes later, the foreman sent a follow-up note asking for snapshots of Danielle L., the teenage daughter of Westerfield's former girlfriend. Prosecutors suggested during the trial that jurors could find a motive for Danielle van Dam's abduction and murder in the pornography and in the pictures of the girl, identified as Danielle L., poolside in a bikini. The defense suggested. however, that the pornography belonged to Westerfield's 18-year-old son and the photos of Danielle L. were just innocent snapshots. When prosecutors played the rape movies during the trial, several jurors burst into tears. Westerfield faces the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors alleged during the two-month trial that Westerfield was a budding pedophile who graduated from downloading child pornography to kidnapping, raping and killing his 7-year-old neighbor. The notes, released Wednesday, are signed by the foreman, Juror 10, an accountant and father of an infant son. During jury selection, the foreman told lawyers he thought capital punishment was a deterrent to crime. The panel asked Tuesday to rehear Westerfield's audiotaped interview with a police interrogation specialist. |
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I've thought about that when I saw her on the witness stand.
Actually one of the more cogent descriptions of John & Ken I've heard.
They have completed alienated me in this trial. They would have been quite at home covering the 1944-1945 'trials' of the 'conspirators' in the Hitler assasination plot. And rooting for the executions by hanging with piano wire of those rounded up by the Gestapo.
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