BREAKING: BRENDA VAN DAM DANCED WITH WESTERFIELD: (Modern Day Westside Story?)7-9-02 Trial Watch

(07-08-2002) - Three defense witnesses testified Monday that Brenda van Dam and David Westerfield, the man accused of murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, danced together the night before the girl was discovered missing.

"Mr. Westerfield and Mrs. van Dam were dancing," said Patricia LePage, describing the scene at Dad's Cafe and Steakhouse the night of Feb. 1.

Since the prosecution introduced hair and fibers found at the defendant's house and motorhome, the defense has tried to show the evidence could have been transferred in some other way, such as dancing.

The 50-year-old defendant would face the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping and killing Danielle van Dam, who lived two houses away in Sabre Springs. He is also charged with misdemeanor possession of child pornography.

In testimony near the beginning of the trial, Brenda van Dam told the court she did not dance with Westerfield.

But LePage said van Dam rubbed her hips and chest against Westerfield during several dances together, recalling the movie "Dirty Dancing." That was just part of what LePage described as "frisky" behavior exhibited by van Dam that night.

LePage said she was in a smoking lounge at Dad's with her daughter, Cherokee Youngs, when van Dam came in and struck up a conversation with the younger woman.

"Well, she did ask my daughter if she liked girls," LePage said when asked to describe the conversation. Van Dam, she said, asked Youngs if she wanted to come to her house for a party later that night.

Youngs testified about the encounter last week.

Duane Blake, a fisherman who said he goes to Dad's a couple times a week, said he caught a glimpse of the defendant dancing with van Dam.

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Blake confirmed an interview with the District Attorney's Office, in which he described their dancing as, "huggy, huggy." He testified he even thought Westerfield might be trying to pick up on van Dam.

Earlier Monday, another woman testified she saw Westerfield dance with Danielle's mother.

Glennie Nasland, who began her testimony last week, said she was on the dance floor and saw the pair turn toward each other while dancing with other people.

Nasland, who described herself as a friend of Westerfield, said she watched them for 20 seconds before they turned away again.

In other testimony Monday, Dave Laspisa said that going to the desert to look for friends, and without bringing an all-terrain vehicle, was not an unusual activity for Westerfield.

The witness, a self-employed Poway man, said he's known the defendant for 15 years and has camped with him near the Imperial County community of Glamis for 10 years.

The witness was one of several people who testified as the defense began to move away from what happened at a Poway night spot the night before Danielle was discovered missing Feb. 2 to Westerfield's weekend wanderings.

Westerfield's attorney, Steven Feldman asked Laspisa to explain why someone would avoid Interstate 8 while taking a motorhome to the desert. Laspisa said high winds and black ice were common on that route, which traverses altitudes over 4,000 feet.

Heather Mack, a security guard at Coronado Cays, testified that she saw Westerfield drive his motorhome into the exclusive neighborhood in the afternoon or evening hours of Feb. 3.

Mack said Westerfield smiled and waved at her as he drove past her security kiosk, but she never saw him again.

The witness told Dusek that she originally told a police officer that she "vaguely remembered" seeing the defendant's recreational vehicle.

Glen Seebruch, an engineering manager at Nokia, testified earlier that Westerfield called him the morning of Feb. 1 and told him he planned to go to the desert that weekend.

Feldman, told Judge William Mudd that his case may be completed by the end of the week.

Insect expert David Faulkner is expected to testify about how long the victim's body may have been in the East County before volunteer searchers found it on Feb. 27.

Feldman has said Westerfield would have had no opportunity to dispose of the body because he was under constant police surveillance from Feb. 4 until his arrest Feb. 22.

Perhaps this is their prayer group

Liberated Christians
PO Box 32835, Phoenix Az 85064-2835 Voicemail: 602-955-0711
Promoting Intimacy and Other-Centered Sexuality

COPYRIGHTED 1997 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - MAY BE REPRINTED OR QUOTED FROM ONLY IF CREDIT IS GIVEN LIBERATED CHRISTIANS, MAILING ADDRESS IS SHOWN AND WE ARE SENT A COPY OF PUBLICATION.
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INDEX
The Founders Of Liberated Christians - Dave & Bill
Founders' Experiences showing the need for more intimacy which has been one of our prime goals
The Founders' Goals For Liberated Christians

The Founders Of Liberated Christians - Dave & Bill

Bill
Bill was raised in conservative, evangelical churches and remains an active member of the conservative Christian community. He is a graduate of a Christian college and holds a master's degree from a well-known evangelical theological seminary. He believes that much of the Christian church has fundamentally abandoned Jesus' teaching of love for God, neighbor and self as the only duty of Christians and has instead substituted obedience to legalistic doctrinal systems as a way of pleasing God. As part of that abandonment the church has taught that sexual loving and "Christian" loving ("eros" vs. "agape" in the Greek) are opposed to one another, so that Christians (even married ones) are guilt-ridden and neurotic about their sexual feelings for one another. In particular, the church has divorced sexuality from spirituality and has been responsible for the emotional and spiritual destruction of many lives through its harsh, rigid and judgmental sexual ethics.

Bill believes that we are defined in our essential humanity by our sexuality as much as by any other element. Thus, the church's attempt to separate sexuality and spirituality wounds us at the core, renders us incomplete and damages our ability to relate in a spiritually healthy way with both God and others.

His own experience of alienation from the sexual health intended by our Creator drove him to re-examine the traditional teachings of Christianity related to sexuality. After years of study of the Bible in its original languages and an intensive examination of the history of biblical intepretation and church history, he was forced to the conclusion that most of the traditional teachings of the church about sexuality and monogamy were either totally false or badly deformed.

He concluded that God's intention for us as human beings and Christians is to have positive sexual self-esteem, to enjoy our sexual needs and desires and to share loving sexuality with a variety of people in responsible ways that conform to the New Testament's teaching that we "love one another from the heart."

Bill believes that such loving sexual sharing among consenting partners is a legitimate expression of God's love. He seeks to use his theological skills and experiences in teaching and counseling to support and encourage Christians and others who are tying to break free from the repressive teachings and customs of church and society.

As a social nudist he also seeks to teach body acceptance as a key to sexual freedom.

With Dave he leads the Liberated Christians Fellowship Groups in Phoenix, writes for the Liberated Christians Newsletter and is helping other groups form on the eastern seaboard and in Southern California.

Dave
In business Dave comes from an analytical CPA background and now has16 years experience as a Certified Financial Planner and Registered Investment Advisor. He helps people with two key areas in life...sex and money!

Dave also comes from a very conservative church background. 20 years ago he was very active in evangelical, conservative ministries, including Bible Study Fellowship, Christian Business Men's Committee, as well as serving as deacon in a conservative Presbyterian Church. For many years he believed in the inerrant word of God--that "God says it and that settles it."

But then he met a couple where both husband and wife were going to Lutheran Theological Seminary to be Lutheran ministers. They started pointing out how in Hebrew and Greek there were obvious contradictions in scripture and some things he thought were crystal clear were quite foggy. Being interested in supporting his conservative beliefs concerning sexuality, Dave set out to do more research to prove his position correct that sex was wrong unless you were married and then only with your wife.

He read many books by theologians and experts in Greek and Hebrew and slowly, over time, found the evidence was overwhelming that he had been very wrong in his traditional beliefs. Dave became very upset that the church would mistranslate and misapply biblical truths to promote an agenda which was not based on the original biblical texts.

In the mid 1980's Dave attended many Stan Dale "Sex, Love and Intimacy" workshops in California, where he learned and experienced the group dynamics of true love, intimacy and fulfilling sexuality far beyond just thrusting intercourse. While these groups were often closer to New Age type beliefs, Dave saw more Christlike love than what he had ever experienced in the traditional church. Too often the church is too busy reaching UP to God to reach OUT to each other. There are more people in the world starving for love and affection than starving for food, but when it comes to meaningful intimate interaction, the church is too often "God's Frozen People."

In Dave's childhood he was very shy and still is in some ways. He was scared of women and didn't date till he was a senior in college. He never went to a dance. Gradually he became more outgoing and married, but 16 years ago, after being resingled, he was insecure and depressed. Many women reacted negatively to him, sensing neediness and insecurity. But slowly, over time, after experiencing the Stan Dale workshops, some sex surrogacy training, Esalen massage training and lots of G-spot massage experience, he found women strangely attracted to him...especially once they started to experience his touch. For many year he thought all men were naturally, wonderfully intimate and he was just far behind. But so many women started telling him that they had seldom experienced men with good touch and intimacy skills that Dave began to wonder why.

He concluded that most men want to be intimate but haven't learned how.

Experiences showing the need for more intimacy which has been one of our prime goals:
One example of men's lack of awareness is the experience Dave had a few years ago with a couple. He was in bed with the wife. The husband is observing, really wanting to learn to be more intimate. All of a sudden the wife says "See honey, foreplay is more than ready.... brace." He laughed and agreed he had never learned intimacy, but wanted to.

Another example was when a couple had him do Esalen massage on the woman. After a while the man came upstairs to see how they were doing and got all turned on seeing his nude girlfriend on the table. He jumped in wanting to poke her and be sexual with her. As he was poking and groping her body parts, he asked how things were going. She replied "Great until you came up." Sometimes honest communications can be embarrassing, but he did get the message that at that time she wanted the intimacy of massage and not poking and groping.

On the other hand, not everyone is going to become interested in real intimacy. Being intimate is much more threatening and difficult for many than just having recreational sex with strangers. But for Dave, he doesn't enjoy sex without physical intimacy, but can often enjoy intimacy even without sex.

Annie is a wonderfully warm, sensitive woman from Phoenix. Sadly, she has been sexually abused by just about every man who has been in her life. Dave enjoyed lots of wonderful intimacy with her, but never had intercourse. She said he was the first man who was interested in pleasing her instead of her just being a sexual receptacle for his own pleasure. She describes herself as a flower in the desert that hasn't been physically watered for a long time, but craves good touch and nonsexual intimacy. She also has a huge bear collection..teddy bears that is...so she thought Dave's bear, Ralph, needed some female company so she let him adopt her bear, Mandy. She is now looking for a man to fulfill her dream of building a cabin in the mountains of Montana to be alone with nature. She is typical of many women Dave meets that are starved for affection and real intimacy but often settle for just sex or, sadly, are turned off sexually.

BTW, Dave has long been seeking a female partner to possibly help in meeting couples, groups and attending swing conventions. Dave seeks either a primary or a limited number of secondary relationships either more commited or casual.

The Founders' Goals For Liberated Christians

Bill and Dave founded Liberated Christians in 1995 with 4 main goals:

1. To help people overcome false sexual guilt taught by traditional Christianity, but which has no biblical basis.

2. To help people learn and share more intimate sexuality beyond just "thrusting sex."

3. To provide meaningful sex education.

4. To encourage and provide group support for encouraging long-term polyamory relationships.

We've been overwhelmed by the huge interest - especially the response to our newsletter. Besides being speakers at many swing conventions, we've also attracted media attention. Hard Copy pleaded with us to let them send a camera crew and do a story on our local groups, but of course we turned them down. We want to preserve our own privacy and that of the members of our groups. And of course we don't want our ideas sensationalized.

We have done some radio shows around the country and Bill was interviewed for a British television production. Our newsletter articles now appear in many publications ranging from Texas Connection, The Friendship Express and Loving More to such colorful publications as The Climax Times and America's Horniest People.

In the Spring of 1995 the Phoenix paper New Times featured us on its front page. While their article was humorous and somewhat sensational, it did tell our story and some couples contacted us. The headline of the article was "Onward Christian Swingers - Looking for God in all the wrong places? - Try this Sunday meeting!". My favorite line from the article was: "The group's introductory literature may be the only publication on Earth where you'll find the phrases 'Old Testament' and 'vibrating nipple clamps' on the same page."

We have been publishing our newsletter in print and over the Internet for about three years. The newsletter now goes to about 3000 people throughout the US and around the world, including such places as England, Germany, South Africa, someone at King Fahd University in Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, and St. Petersburg Russia. As a result, many ask us where they can find a group like ours in their city (including from So Africa) . Sadly, we know of no other group that combines Christianity with intimacy and sexuality, but we encourage other groups to form and Bill is working to help make that happen around the country.

For those more interested in our Christian views, Bill and Dave have written some extensive papers and have discussed many issues in past newsletters. We first presented these issues at the Lifestyles Conventions in '94 and '95. These presentations, "Swinging Christians--Not a Biblical Conflict," resulted in a great deal of interest and publicity, especially within the swinging lifestyle. We have since presented at many other "swing" conventions, such as Visions and Reflections, and at committed polyamory groups, such as Family Synergy and Delaware Valley Synergy, was well as being guests on a number of radio talk shows.

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