Justice for Danielle. Justice for all.
sw
April 16, 2002
Attorneys for David Westerfield continued yesterday to attack the credibility of two detectives in the Danielle van Dam murder case, saying the police officers have a history of "dishonesty and excessive force."
In court documents filed yesterday, the attorneys cite an internal memo from the District Attorney's Office saying the two homicide detectives, Michael Ott and Mark Keyser, made false statements during a 2000 murder investigation.
In the Nov. 29, 2000, memo, an investigator for the District Attorney's Office informed a prosecutor of his belief that Ott and Keyser falsified facts in an affidavit to get an arrest warrant for a man held in the case.
Westerfield's attorneys filed this memo as part of their continuing effort to have a judge review the personnel files of Ott, Keyser and 10 other police officials investigating the slaying of the 7-year-old Sabre Springs resident.
Because of a gag order issued by a judge in the case, neither the defense attorneys nor prosecutors and police would comment about the memo, its accuracy or whether a response is expected.
Westerfield's attorneys accuse police of violating their client's rights when they questioned him in the days after Danielle disappeared the first weekend of February. Westerfield, 50, a twice-divorced engineer who lived two doors from the van Dams, was arrested Feb. 22 and charged with kidnapping and murdering the girl.
His attorneys said police repeatedly ignored Westerfield's request for a lawyer during hours of interrogation. Any personnel records that show past police misconduct "would certainly be relevant to impeach witness-officers at trial and to prove Mr. Westerfield's constitutional rights were violated and that any statements made by him were involuntary," his legal team stated in the documents filed yesterday.
Westerfield's attorneys have been attacking Ott's and Keyser's credibility since discovering the detectives tried to visit their client in jail after he already had hired an attorney and been charged. A police spokesman later called the two detectives' conduct in that incident inappropriate.
The attorneys also have cited a 1989 felony trial in which Keyser and another officer were acquitted of charges that they beat up a handcuffed drug suspect.
Superior Court Judge William Mudd has scheduled a hearing Thursday on whether to grant the defense's request for police personnel records. Last week prosecutors filed court documents saying Westerfield spoke to the detectives voluntarily before he was arrested and even complimented them on their professionalism.
The Nov. 29, 2000 memo filed in court yesterday was written by district attorney's investigator Dan Nordell to then-Deputy District Attorney Steve Garvin. The memo discusses the investigation into a Sept. 14, 2000, shooting death in the Talmadge neighborhood of San Diego. The victim, Maleeke Lawson, was killed during an argument in the middle of a street.
In the memo, Nordell said that a man held in the slaying had been arrested with "very little justification" and that Keyser had filed an affidavit falsely stating that a witness had positively identified him in a photo lineup. In reality, the witness didn't pick anyone out of the lineup, according to the memo.
Ott knew about the false affidavit and did nothing to correct it, according to the memo.
Another detective later acknowledged that the arrest warrant contained "other false statements in it but that Keyser had said not to mention it because the (prosecutor) was stressing out already," according to the memo.
It was unclear yesterday whether the arrested man was ever charged in the homicide. A second man, Reginald Curry, was acquitted of murder charges in the case in April 2001.
The gag order prohibits Nordell or anyone else in the District Attorney's Office from commenting about the Westerfield case. Garvin, who left the District Attorney's Office and now works as a lawyer in Spokane, Wash., declined to comment yesterday.
In court documents filed yesterday, the attorneys cite an internal memo from the District Attorney's Office saying the two homicide detectives, Michael Ott and Mark Keyser, made false statements during a 2000 murder investigation.
In the Nov. 29, 2000, memo, an investigator for the District Attorney's Office informed a prosecutor of his belief that Ott and Keyser falsified facts in an affidavit to get an arrest warrant for a man held in the case.
JUST WIN BABY......???
Again, is the rush to justice by SDPD designed to "shield" the VD's from having to stand in account for their actions?
Why were they and their SWING SET friends ALL cleared within 13 hours of the disappearance?