Posted on 06/08/2002 3:33:44 PM PDT by MizSterious
Westerfield trial TV coverage lures viewers with lurid details
Remote Control
Robert P. Laurence
June 7, 2002
TV is about pictures, and the David Westerfield trial has not been a pretty picture.
Carried live on four local stations, and on cable's Court TV, the trial's pictures have been drawn in words, words like "sexual penetration" "putrefaction," "animal activity" and "decomposition" used in describing what might have happened to the body of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam before and after her death.
To many, the pictures, again drawn in words, of adults engaged in spouse-swapping, group sex and pot smoking have been nearly as repugnant.
But just as many are finding the whole spectacle of kidnapping, murder, kinky sexuality and everyday middle-class suburbanites pursuing a lifestyle usually associated with memories of hippies of the 1960s morbidly fascinating. (Some may be looking at the folks next door with new curiosity.)
Decisions of local TV stations have varied according to the expected newsworthiness of whatever witness has been on the stand. All carried the testimony of Damon and Brenda van Dam, Danielle's parents, Wednesday and yesterday.
KUSI/Channel 51 has been the most dedicated, carrying all the testimony live, and airing a nightly hour-long wrap-up of the day's activities at 9 p.m. For viewers who don't subscribe to cable, KUSI has been the only place to watch the entire trial.
KGTV/Channel 10 has aired most of the testimony in the first three days of the trial. The coverage airs sometimes on Channel 10, and always on KGTV's all-news cable outlet on Channel 15. KFMB/Channel 8 and KNSD/Channel 39 have been choosier, often skipping the testimony of technical experts.
Wednesday's ratings favored KGTV and KUSI, and Nielsen totals of how many people have been watching TV during the day were up as much as 12 percent compared to last week.
Some of the technical testimony has been the most gruesomely fascinating, including the descriptions of County Medical Examiner Dr. Brian Blackbourne of the condition of Danielle's body when it was found, and his listing of which body parts had been gnawed by animals and which had not. (Blessedly, the courtroom camera has eschewed close-ups of the pictures of the child's body. Those would be too ugly to bear.)
Just as fascinating in the context of the grisly scenario was Brenda van Dam's description of the now-painfully mundane routine of selling Girl Scout cookies, the route she and Danielle followed as they walked house to house through the neighborhood, and her statement that the home of defendant David Westerfield "was the last house we went to."
For those who have made up their mind that Westerfield is guilty, Court TV is the place to go. Anchors Nancy Grace and Sheila Stainback have all but declared themselves witnesses for the prosecution. Both have ridiculed potential defense arguments before they've been made in court, and Grace described Westerfield at one point as "looking pretty pasty right now."
Grace yesterday waxed long and righteously indignant because Damon van Dam wasn't allowed to stay in the courtroom while his wife testified, bemoaning that he wasn't being allowed "closure," but ignoring the fact that California courts don't allow witnesses to remain in court while other witnesses testify.
Local anchors have remained neutral and objective, but speculation has not been entirely absent. Lawyer Milt Silverman, analyst for KGTV, yesterday said he was wondering whether Westerfield had "figured out ways to defeat those locks" on the Van Dams' home.
Still, the most memorable pictures we've seen so far in the Westerfield trial were those of yesterday morning.
The first was the stricken look on Brenda van Dam's face when she was asked how many children she has, and her long pause as she deliberately decided to include Danielle: "Three."
The second was of Brenda van Dam, sobbing and daubing a tissue to her eyes as she listened to a tape of her first 911 call, and heard her own voice tell the operator, "My daughter's not in her bed this morning. She's only 7...
"Oh my God! ... I don't know where she could be."
I took that to mean the underside of the beanbag...ms savage seemed hostile to me and was playing word games.....it was made to sound like underneath the bean bag, on the ground, there was a potential blood stain, but then it was established the stain was on the beanbag itself......is that just as confusing? :-)
No "evidence" had been found yet but somehow he became their main focus pretty fast, had they eliminated the sex offenders that quickly??
It is a FACT that DVD AND BVD AND "THE PIZZA CLUB" folks enjoy watching and joining in with people (other than just their spouses) having sex.
This is not "on-line" porn or magazines...this is flesh to flesh, touchy feely, intimate sexual relations amongst peers. To me, the fact that DW has some computer porn (not yet proven to be child porn), does not come close to the depravity of the VD circle of friends.
They are established sexual "experimentors" who use the ACT of sexual intercourse with people other than their spouses to further gratify themselves. How far would they go to further gratify themselves after "swinging" was getting dull and routine?
I can see your point. 'Looking At Porn' and 'Engaging In Sex Orgies', although they are both catagorizable as irregular sexual activities, are nonetheless slightly different kettles of fish.
Among American males, 15 to 115, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who hasn't sneaked a peek at a dirty picture or two at some point...
And -in most cases- it has resulted in no serious, lasting damage to their personalities.
People who engage in sex orgies, on the other hand, are in the minority. And participation in activities such as this requires a much deeper commitment than sneaking a peek at a dirty picture.
"...They are established sexual "experimentors" who use the ACT of sexual intercourse with people other than their spouses to further gratify themselves. How far would they go to further gratify themselves after "swinging" was getting dull and routine?..."
Yes, some people tend to graduate from one level of a given activity to the next. It's often true among drug users and criminals, and must be equally true of sexual miscreants as well.
But -depraved as they are- the majority of swingers are probably not likely to 'graduate' all they way to sex-murder...
YES, I believe that a HIGHER PERCENTAGE of them are capable of such complete degradation when compared to their less perverse fellow citizens. I'm on record with respect to believing that. But I believe that most swingers tend reach a point where they become comfortable with a particular set of fetishes and then stick with that repertoire.
I don't think it was one of the 'regulars' that did it. The little girl was killed by a wild card, someone who they brushed up against who was a sexual predator of the first order.
If I were the detective in charge, I'd have gotten a list of their one night stands. I'd have asked the VD's for the names or descriptions of the ones who gave them the creeps, who were never invited back for 'seconds'.
Does the accused fit this description? I'm not sure. There seems to be an element of this in his relationship with the VD's. (from what I've read)
Where are you getting "Brenda had been seeing him"? Also, "similar DNA" is not accurate. They can tell whose blood it is (and OJ's was defined as his, not his son's----I saw you think that was somehow not shown at that trial). They can differentiate between family members. It was Danielle's hair and blood found, not her mother's.
Am I wrong? Anyone?
sw
In addition to Danielle's fingerprint they found in the MH, they also found Danielle L (DW's glfrnd dghter) and Jennifers...who is Jennifer, do we know?
DVD stated that Danielle could not open the back gate, but the brothers statement to police was thas she had in fact been able to and had gotten in trouble for opening it and going out front......has the discrepency been addressed yet?
First, there's this one:
Officer: During the course of our investigation, the resident here, his name came up, as someone who had contact with the family. We've talked to him. He is cooperating with us. He's talked to us yesterday, he's talking to us today. We had some things we wanted to check in his house. He allowed us to go into his home and we are doing some things to process the scene and possibly eliminate him as a suspect." Source
Second, there was an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune the same day, where another officer says something quite similar:
"This is a process of elimination," said Dave Cohen, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department. "We have gotten some information and we wanted to take a little closer look at his vehicle and his residence." Source
And from one of the motions filed:
"Detective Alldredge's affadavit was relied on to establish probable cause for search warrants 2783D and 27818 to search Mr. Westerfield's home. 27813 for Mr. Westerfields clothes. In his affadavit, Alldredge misrepresented statements by Brenda Van Dam that were relied on to supply probable cause for the issuance of the search warrants. Because the affadavits were sealed, documents may only disclose the specifics of the misrepresentations in camera."
So, from this, it appears Brenda said something, but that Alldredge might have altered it or exaggerated it. Bottom line, it looks like someone did point the police in a certain direction.
Of the 3 spots on the jacket that tested positive for the presumptive test, only 1 of the spots matched Danielle's DNA. It is not clear if the jacket was kept in the RV or not. It has been stated elsewhere that the jacket was kept in the RV for bummin' around. Sure Feldman will get to that too.
It's gonna be a long summer....
Figured someone had to have pointed pretty strongly in DW's direction....13 registered sex offenders in the neighborhood, people in and out of the VD home on the night in question....yet the police are on DW's computer already by Feb 4th??
I am not ruling out the Blood WAS Danielle's, but that the same blood could also have been Brenda's, is still possible.
I think it's been established the child did/could get out the back gate...
sw
If it was the accused, I imagine that it will develop that it was about sex, and that her death was incidental/unintended. I dont see him as a serial killer. Goofy and kinky, yes, but not a psycho-killer.
If it was a predator that the VD's unwisely allowed into their home/lives, I believe that it will develop that it was entirely about killing, with the sex being peripheral.
Source: http://www.nctimes.net/news/2002/20020324/60950.html
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