In taped interrogation, Westerfield tells police 'my life is over'

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | January 7, 2003

[TomB]

In a videotaped interrogation with San Diego police detectives four days after Danielle van Dam was kidnapped, an exhausted David Westerfield says "my life is over," seemingly coming close to an admission that he murdered his 7-year-old neighbor.

"As far as I'm concerned my life is over, the life that I had, the life that I was living is over," Westerfield says in the interrogation conducted the evening of Feb. 5, 2002. Danielle was last seen the night of Feb. 1.

"But you can't blame anyone but yourself, Dave," answers one of the police detectives.

"And I have no problem with that," Westerfield replies.

In the tapes released Tuesday, Westerfield admits "unusual" sexual encounters with his wife, denies anything improper about his alleged use of binoculars to watch neighbors and says the child pornography found on his computer was simply something he downloaded along with a lot of other pornographic images and that he had no sexual interest in children.

Superior Court Judge William Mudd agreed Monday to unseal the videotape along with hundreds of pages of transcripts, documents and recordings in the Westerfield case, as well as transcripts of police interrogations and court hearings conducted in secret.

Some of the material – audiotape and videotape of Westerfield being interrogated during the early stages of the investigation – was released Tuesday afternoon.

The remainder of the material, which ranges from transcripts of closed-door court hearings to motions regarding potential evidence, will be released Monday, Mudd ruled.

The ruling Monday came three days after Mudd sentenced the former design engineer to death for kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, his neighbor in Sabre Springs.

Monday's court hearing came in response to a request by The San Diego Union-Tribune, which has been seeking access to the information for months. The San Diego-based 4th District Court of Appeal has ruled that Mudd must release the information.

The San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists made a donation to the legal costs.

Westerfield, who attended Monday's hearing, is scheduled to be moved within days to death row at San Quentin State Prison outside San Francisco.

During earlier court appearances, Westerfield was always dressed in civilian attire, but he appeared in court Monday in a green jail jumpsuit. He sat in a holding area so he couldn't be filmed by a television camera.

[demsux]

Actually, if you are talking about education, career and homelife, I would put mine up against yours anyday.

[demsux]

Where on that list are the FACTS irrelevent, hyped, exaggerated or plain wrong.

[countess]

Oh, brother. It looks like you watch enough to get irritated by the commercials. How do you know their coverage is "awful" if you don't watch regularly?




Bugs: The Best Witnesses? (Westerfield's Son Neal Forced To Testify By Desperate D.A. Dusek!!)

Posted by cyncooper to is_is
On News/Activism 07/26/2002 3:54 PM EDT #1,322 of 1,500

CTV taking commercial breaks, etc....
Can you believe the way they cut away? It makes it hardly watchable.

I try to get the streaming video and if that fails have been doing audio. Really! I do agree CourtTV coverage is awful. Sometimes I do try to catch Beth Karas during breaks because she can tell us what she observed in the courtroom (albeit we must all be skeptical of media).

---

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[cyncooper]

Actually, if you are talking about education, career and homelife, I would put mine up against yours anyday.

Well, this just speaks for itself, doesn't it?

[demsux]

LOL...it may take 9,000,000 more denials.

[demsux]

YUP

[demsux]

Work to do, will check back later to see if she has answered ANYONE'S questions.

[Jaded]

Jaded. Non civil posts about us do not deserve a civil response. I have been civil for months, painstakingly explaining why I came to certain conclusions. Backing it up with testimony, etc.

Oh please. You were right you used to be civil. You used to back statements up with testimony.

Now you and yours pick a new target every other day. Before you make one of your catty comments about people being paranoid ACTUALLY RE-READ threads. You and your ilk kindred spirits are all too obvious.

BTW, the postS Countess posted were different dates. You do what you accuse others of doing.

And you and red BOTH talk about other posters while avoiding answering questions. Your little mid thread chats. So spare us all the sanctimonious act.

[cyncooper]

Do I have to explain everything to you? Perhaps this is why you didn't understand the evidence at trial.

My post there is saying that I watch streaming video and if that fails audio. (See where it says that???) That would be the online San Diego Channel , not Court TV. I was commenting on why I was and am not a regular Court TV viewer.

So, once again, you have proven my point. I never said I never put the channel on for a few minutes only to see commercials. And I never said I didn't actually watch coverage on the channel.

As I said, I can see why the facts of the case were beyond your grasp if you can't even comprehend this subject.

[Jrabbit]

FresnoDA's tasteless humorless wit

FresnoDA was banned long ago, remember? You and your litter mates need to find a new target.

[cyncooper]

A)I have never called anyone paranoid and am at a loss as to this comment.

B) countess' posting of my comments proved my point that I am not a regular Court TV watcher.

C) I wouldn't say I'm being sanctimonious, I'd say I'm ticked at some of this nonsense. What do you make of demsux implying (practically outright saying) there is something wrong with my homelife? Do you think that was called for? We all know what he was saying there and it is beneath contempt.

[Jaded]

What part of YOUR OWN post do you not understand?

[cyncooper]

What do you mean.

I said to demsux I do not watch Court TV in response to his stupid "Nancy Grace is coming on Court TV" post. I do not watch Court TV.

My post did not say "I never watch Court TV and have never in my life put that channel on".

In fact, my own posts remark about how unwatchable it is so I use online video or audio. Oh, yes, I did watch some coverage--I never said otherwise. I did not watch Nancy Grace comment and then take up the torch from there and carry it here.

[countess]

B) countess' posting of my comments proved my point that I am not a regular Court TV watcher.

what about post #1234?

[Jaded]

I think it's getting out of hand.

I get tired of the snotty personal attacks.

It goes BOTH ways:

To: demsux

Care to explain your beyond stupid comment?

Here it is, el stupido: The trial presented evidence, to which redlipstick has referred. Nancy Grace can rant and rave about steamcleaning the motorhome until the cows come home. That doesn't mean one single person posting on the board ever claimed it happened.

But then, reality and facts aren't exactly up your alley, are they. Idiot.


1205 posted on 01/24/2003 9:03 AM CST by cyncooper
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[EllaMinnow]

The skybridge just shows us that it would be very easy to reach a child's bedroom in that house without having anyone in the master bedroom be aware of it.

I wasn't pointing it out to you for a specific reason.

[Jaded]

CTV is MUCH BETTER on the weekends when they show movies. Much more accurate too. /so Hafta have something to watch other than football. However, the History Channel is the preferred view.

[EllaMinnow]

I would hardly think that anyone who once had a child wander out in the middle of the night necessitating rescue by a neighbor could think their home life superior to cyn's.

[cyncooper]

What about it?

I already have gone to great lengths to explain that I never claimed to never have watched some Court TV coverage.

Perhaps you didn't get demsux's post saying that Nancy Grace was coming on (he meant today) and that we would be watching her? I don't watch Court TV and that's what I posted.

I did not say (I've already said this, but one more time) I never have watched Court TV at all. During the trial I certainly gave it a try from time to time. As my posts make clear, I found it unwatchable. Not at all like it was years ago when they would not constantly interrupt trial coverage etc.

Of course, the main point is this charge that the Westerfield is guilty side took their talking points from the likes of Nancy Grace. Wrong!

[EllaMinnow]

Did you not understand my post?

I wasn't referring to FR, I was referring to SNJ, where his lyrics live on.