Posted on 07/12/2002 7:06:01 AM PDT by MizSterious
By Kristen Green
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 12, 2002
Denise Kemal was fired June 28, more than two weeks after her nationally televised testimony, because the company has a zero-tolerance drug policy.
Losing her job has ruined her life, Kemal said yesterday. "I've always wanted to fly," she said. "It took me years to get my job."
She said she is appealing the dismissal because smoking marijuana "wasn't an everyday thing." While she waits for an answer, Kemal, 28 and recently divorced, watches the Westerfield trial from the couch of her new Florida apartment.
Kemal was called to the witness stand by the prosecution June 10. She was at the van Dam home Feb. 1, the night 7-year-old Danielle van Dam was last seen, and spent the evening with Brenda van Dam, the girl's mother.
The two had become friendly through their husbands, who both work at Qualcomm. A spokeswoman for Southwest confirmed that Kemal had been fired, but declined to elaborate. She said company policy states that the "illegal use of drugs, narcotics or controlled substances off duty and off company premises is not acceptable and may result in termination because it can affect on-the-job performance and the confidence of our customers in the company's ability to meet its responsibilities."
Kemal said she was just answering questions posed to her during Westerfield's trial because "I want to make sure he gets convicted."
"Because of him, it's just ruined everyone's lives," she said.
Kemal testified that she went out with her Tierrasanta neighbor Barbara Easton and Brenda van Dam to Dad's Cafe & Steakhouse in Poway two Fridays in a row, Jan. 25 and Feb. 1. They were celebrating Kemal's upcoming move to Baltimore, where she had been transferred for work.
The second night out, Feb. 1, she was introduced to Westerfield, whom she has described as "creepy." Westerfield is charged with kidnapping and murdering Danielle. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.
Kemal said the three women first celebrated her move Jan. 25. Kemal and Easton, who lived in the same apartment complex, shared a bottle of wine before driving to the van Dams, Kemal testified. She said she smoked some marijuana in the van Dams' garage before they left for the bar.
The next week, the three women decided to spend that Friday night partying at Dad's again after Damon van Dam canceled plans to go out of town and agreed to stay home with the couple's three children.
On Feb. 1, they smoked pot in the garage a second time, Kemal testified, and she and Easton shared a beer. Later in the evening, they partied at Dad's, where they ran into Westerfield. At one point in the night, they went to van Dam's sport utility vehicle to smoke marijuana again.
Kemal said her supervisors learned that she had smoked pot because customers mailed newspaper articles about her testimony.
She had never had problems at Southwest before the trial, she said. In fact, she regularly received letters of commendation from airline passengers since she was hired in November 1998.
Once, a Texas couple she had met on a flight sent a box of candy to her home. Kemal, in turn, shipped them a set of candles for their living room.
Kemal said that even after Sept. 11, she didn't have any reservations about flying.
"I did it because it's my job, and I love my job," she said. "I get to travel and meet different people. I like to serve the public."
Exactly right. She knew the result would be dismissal if ever caught. She obviously thought it was worth the risk.
I guess she found out that maybe it wasn't.
And he couldn't determine the cause of death either.
Well now, isn't that a coinky-dink? It definitely plays into the rest of the rush to "get their man", doesn't it?
Again.....more troubling revelations of LE in San Diego. It pains me to say it because my dear son-in-law is a police officer in San Diego County (Not SDPD though).
What is that all about?!!! Because I characterized this witness' whine as a "liberal reaction" you call it a personal attack? I call it reasoned commentary. However, I consider being termed "clintonese" to be a personal attack against me.
I don't know who you consider the "victim" here -- the only "victims" I can identify in this sordid story is poor little Danielle, her brothers, -- and perhaps the defendant, DW, if he has been falsely accused. I haven't made up my mind about possible false accusations because I don't feel that all the evidence has been fairly presented yet -- and a lot of evidence has been lost, or swept under the rug.
Somebody is sick here, and it is not me.
Can you point to a regular poster who thinks DW is the culprit who has defended the van Dam behavior? Be sure, I am not one who does.
Yes, especially since the affidavits re DW's statements to the cops during his "beach ride" have just been unsealed in time for the unsequestered jury to be able to think about them for the next 10 days while the judge relaxes.
I've never heard of a jury in a capital murder trial being cut loose for 10 days during the trial and not being sequestered, have you? Seems like the judge, the prosecutor, and the media are doing everything in their power to make sure the jury returns a verdict of "guilty."
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