Testimony costs flight attendant her job

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."

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."

Here's a little more info on Dr. Cyril Wecht.

Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D., is Coroner of Allegheny County, as well as one of the country's leading forensic pathologists. Dr. Wecht was elected to a four-year term in 1977 by the citizens of Allegheny County. Previously, he served as chief forensic pathologist from 1966 to 1970 and as Coroner of Allegheny County from 1970 to 1980. In addition to receiving his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and his law degree from the University of Maryland, Dr. Wecht is certified by the American Board of Pathology, in anatomic, clinical, and forensic Pathology, and is also a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists. Formerly the Chairman of the Department of Pathology at Saint Francis Central Hospital in Pittsburgh, Dr. Wecht is now the President of its medical staff and is actively involved as a medical-legal and forensic science consultant, author, and lecturer. Academically, Cyril H. Wecht is a Clinical Professor at the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Graduate School of Public Health, and holds positions as an Adjunct Professor at Duquesne University Schools of Law, Pharmacy, and Health Sciences. He has served as President of the American College of Legal Medicine, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Board of Legal Medicine and the American College of Legal Medicine Foundation. The author of more than 400 professional publications, Dr. Wecht is also an editorial board member of more than 20 national and international medical-legal and forensic scientific publications; editor of the five-volume set, Forensic Sciences (Matthew Bender); co-editor of the two and three-volume sets, Handling Soft Tissue Injury Cases and Preparing and Winning, Medical Negligence Cases (both published by Michie). Dr. Wecht has organized and conducted Postgraduate Medical-Legal Seminars in more than fifty countries throughout the world in his capacity as Director of the Pittsburgh Institute of Legal Medicine. He has performed approximately 14,000 autopsies and has supervised, reviewed or has been consulted on approximately 30,000 additional postmortem examinations. Being an expert in Forensic Medicine, Dr. Wecht has frequently appeared on several nationally syndicated programs discussing various medicolegal and forensic scientific issues, including medical malpractice, drug abuse, the assassinations of both President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the death of Elvis Presley, the O.J. Simpson case, and the JonBenet Ramsey cases. His expertise has also been utilized in high profile cases involving Mary Jo Kopechne, Sunny von Bulow, Jean Harris, Dr. Jeffrey McDonald, the Waco Branch Davidian fire, and Vincent Foster. A comprehensive study of these cases are discussed from the perspective of Dr. Wecht's own professional involvement in his books, Cause of Death, Grave Secrets, and Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? (All published by Dutton/Penguin).

http://www.county.allegheny.pa.us/coroner/about.asp

More good info to learn from.

http://lawschool.lexis.com/emanuel/crimproc/crimpro07.htm

THE EXCLUSIONARY RULE

I. THE RULE GENERALLY

A. Statement of rule: The "exclusionary rule" provides that evidence obtained by violating D’s constitutional rights may not be introduced by the prosecution at D’s criminal trial, at least for purposes of providing direct proof of D’s guilt.

Example: A car driven by D is randomly stopped by Officer, who has no reasonable grounds for suspecting D of any wrongdoing. Officer requires D to leave the car, and then searches the car. In the car’s trunk, Officer finds heroin. At D’s trial for possession of heroin, the prosecution will not be permitted to introduce the heroin itself (or the fact that the heroin was found in D’s car) against D. The reason is that the discovery and seizure of the heroin was a direct result of the illegal stop and search, and any evidence directly derived from violation of D’s constitutional rights is prevented by the exclusionary rule from being introduced against D as part of the prosecution’s case in chief.

B. Judge-made rule: The exclusionary rule is a judge-made, not statutory, rule. Over the years, the rule has been shaped by a long series of Supreme Court decisions. The rule is binding on both state and federal courts.

1. Not constitutionally required: The Supreme Court has held that the exclusionary rule is not required by the Constitution. [U.S. v. Leon] Instead, the rule has been created by the Supreme Court as a means of deterring the police from violating the Fourth, Fifth and other Amendments.

C. Dwindling application: In general, the scope of the exclusionary rule has been steadily cut back during the Burger and Rehnquist years.

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Testimony costs flight attendant her job

Airline fires witness for admitting pot use