Posted on 01/08/2003 9:24:19 AM PST by 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.
I don't have the answer.
My opinion is that this was such a high profile case, and so much (re-election, reputation of the SD PD, and SD in general) was riding on finding the culprit, finding the body, and having the culprit given the death penalty that rules were broken, to ensure that happened. I fully believe that the SD PD BELIEVED they had the right man. I think they feel justified in breaking the laws of the United States to put the killer behind bars.
My objection to this whole thing, all along has been that they got the wrong person, violated his rights, and possibly planted evidence to ensure they could convict him, and the killer still runs free.
I.E. "Well, we will arrest you now, and then see if we have proof later".
Isn't that what you were implying in your post to Jaded? About how scummy and vile DW is, yet Jaded still supports him? If you meant something different, I would be happy to be properly informed.
When statements that you accepted as TRUTH are shown to be complete lies, What do you say about it ?
If the investigators, Ott and Keyser principly, were willing to violate the LAWS of the UNITED STATES, the LAWS of the JUSTICE System in California, to violate the Constitutional rights of a suspect, (and HAD violated the law before by falsifying evidence), and were willing to LIE in court to the JUDGE, WOULD they also PLANT EVIDENCE to win this case?
Now for this to be possible they had to have motive (no doubt here),Opportunity (Plenty, documented in fact that they were alone in the MH before the evidence was found), and had to have access to the evidence to do so.
This last part is hardest to prove (and accept, I am sure).
The hair could have been taken from her hair brush (which the LE's claimed had no hair on it), the print could have been taken from her room and transferred to the MH, and the DNA taken from her panties and transferred. All very easily done, if you are experienced in forensics.
The principle or idiom was "Tis better to let one guilty man go, than to imprison an innocent one."
If it was my daughter would I want them to let the possible killer go? NO. Should I be upset if they do. YES. AT WHO? The LE's that violated the law.
And REDLIPSTICK, you seem to be ignoring facts like PERJURY!
The LE's that admitted violating rights, and LYING in court should be arrested and charged for those crimes. Don't you agree?
Or do we just say, It's OK, DW is a scum , so he deserves whatever happens?
What if.... the killer is still free?
Did you believe that DW knew where the body was,and would tell the investigators, if they let him talk to his lawyer? I thought you said that his statement "If I get what I want, you'll get what you want" meant that he was going to tell them where Danielle was? Didn't you and the you know who discuss this with each other? On this thread?
No one has been charged. They should be.
We have LE's admitting that they lied. If you lie in testimony, that is called PERJURY. It doesn't even have to be proven, when you admit to it.
Geez, that's certainly different than we've been led to believe.
Did you by chance watch the video interview DW did with Keyser and Ott?
He made similar (no, not this exact phrase, and I haven't had a chance to read the docs as Rheo is doing, so I haven't seen what she's referring to) comments when they pleaded with him to tell them where she was.
You an Aquarian? (if you respond, "WHY DO YOU ASK", that answers the question)
Thank You GOD, Thank You the witnesses that saw it, Thank You KCPD for getting her back to her family.
ALSO, KIMMY, I told you it was gonna snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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