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'm wondering if there is more dirty laundry than we've seen so far. Something worse, maybe.
I hope BVD is asked how big that joint was...4 people smoked on it before going to Dad's...5 people at Dad's...must have been huge!
Hard to do if you (supposedly, as per the testimony) didn't find the tot missing until 9 in the morning. Does she ever bother to listen to the testimony before commenting?
Wouldn't that put a lot of lawyers out of business, if we started doing that? Including Ms. Nancy?
However, if you want to convict your daughter's murderer, none of it should matter at this point.
Why not just say, "Yeah, we and our friends are sleazeballs, druggies, and we do a lot of things that may disgust other people. We'll truthfully tell you every detail of that night and any prior occasions. We want to be straightforward in order to assure you that neither we nor our friends had anything to do with Danielle's murder. We want to cooperate 100%."
Seriously !!!! If you believe that Westerfield actually did this, but your lying and evasiveness may create reasonable doubt, wouldn't you lay it all out there?
*Note--if anyone wants on or off my ping list, please let me know!
Possibly the same "someone" that called in a tip, when it wasn't discovered during the initial search of the area, a few days before.
They had already searched the Dehesa Rd. area and not found anything. Bill Garcia had been studying the situation and came up with a "Hunch" that they should search that area again. They had many more searchers that day to do so with.
His hunch was based on the facts that that area was a known illegal 'dump' spot, that it was secluded, and that is was on a backroad that went from the VD's neighborhood to the Casino.
SO, let's say you are the real killer, and you need the body found now, so you can collect the insurance. You have already put in place measures that would incriminate your neighbor for the crime, but there isn't a body yet. So, you find out that Garcia has this 'hunch', and you plant the body there. You are able to run freely around the desert and all other search areas, and no one suspects you of anything at all. You can dump the body and feel sure you will not get caught. It makes sense you are running all over the place, handing out flyers to volunteers, etc. MAN, TALK ABOUT BEING GIVEN THE KEYS TO THE CITY.
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