WEEKEND THREAD ALERT!!
Judge Allows Danielle's Dad Back In Court: (Damon was banned for MAD-DOGGING Westerfield!)
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."
Just a case of absolutely incredible coincidental bad luck perhaps?
Don't think jurors will see it that way.
excerpt from article
A"girly girl" born between two brothers, Danielle van Dam was a little princess from the start. She always loved wearing pretty little dresses, dancing and getting her hair styled. She recently dressed as Tinkerbell for a friend's birthday party. "She enjoys being a little girl," said family friend Paula Call. Danielle's friends and her classmates at Creekside Elementary School describe her as a sweet, quiet girl who laughs a lot. "I think about her every day," Sergey Smirnoff, a 6-year-old classmate, said a few days after her disappearance. "Everybody talks about her. We're trying to figure out how she got lost."
I didn't mention this to insinuate that if she didn't call, people would harass her or question her about it, although you are probably right. People would have picked her apart if she called her friends for help instead of police. As soon as RR said "Swing" it was over, done, they can do no right.
On the other hand, had the LE not leaked the information, the chances of her being criticized over that 911 call would be minimal. She would have been just another hysterical parent, living in a very nice neighborhood, whose daughter was kidnapped.
Judge Allows Danielle's Dad Back In Court: (Damon was banned for MAD-DOGGING Westerfield!)
Her testimony didn't make or break this case...she said nothing to sway the jury either way, did she? Sort of reminded me of many Liberals who stepped forward to help Clinton, and ended up broke, in debt with no job, while the Spinmeister ends up filthy rich...What a joke.
I celebrate the fact that the airlines one of my children works for, enforces their Zero tolerance rule. I celebrate and rejoice that you and I can be confident our flight attendents aren't stoned.
There is a Union she belongs too...let her appeal.
Let her appeal and fight the FAA... You think she's special? Who does she think she is? The Queen of Sheeba?
BTW, Hildy...where is all the sympathy for DW's family? His children? The fact he may be falsely accused and his life is ruined? Where is the sympathy for Dw when the Van Dams go outside and harass the potential buyers the Realtors take over to Westerfield's house?
Westerfield should sue the van dams for interferance resulting in a "no sale" of his home. But, I guess the house belongs to Feldman now, so let Brenda and Damon try and fight the law-suit Feldman brings against them...ha! The Van Dams are out of control mad-dogs. They, at the very least, have no class.
sw
Really? What am I to make of my now eight year old? Or do you want to criticize my parenting as I let her sleep even later than nine if she is so inclined?
On another site, I saw a mention made, about the improbability of having all of the items of evidence against Mr. Westerfield oocur together, if he is indeed innocent. It could be made into a mathematical calculation.
I guess you start with the absense and actual death of Danielle. Next: What is the "probability" the absense would occur within hours of DAW being at Dad's?
Going on, what is the probability that in addition, that this weekend DAW goes on a MH trip? Then the probability he goes alone. Then the probability he doesn't take his toys. Then the probability he goes to the Strand? The the probability he goes ALSO to the desert?
You continue with seemingly independent events, assigning a probability. Finally all of the probabilities are multiplied, to get a "combined probability."
When deliberating, the minds of many of us sort of do this, without all of the math calculations. The result might be what we label "common sense," or label "reason." Still others might call it "logic" (logic being a basis for mathematics, or vice versa).
As a downtime exercize, I highly recommend watching the movie "Twelve Angry Men" made during the 1950s, if memory serves me. The cast is awesome, and it illustrates dramatically how a jury reasons things through.
Perhaps it is overly dramatic, but it is good, nonetheless.
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