Feldman's Questions Show Defense Strategy: Dig into Damon and Brenda van Dam's Private Lives!

KNSD NBC ^ | March 19, 2002 | Lynn Stuart

[FresnoDA]

Experts say attorney Steven Feldman's questioning of the van Dams gives clues to the strategy he will pursue during the trial.

Feldman's questions show defense strategy by Lynn Stuart

SAN DIEGO, March 15 –    When the parents of Danielle van Dam testified Thursday at a hearing to decide if the murder case should go to trial, it gave the suspect's attorney, Steven Feldman, an opportunity to grill them.

Much of the questioning may have seemed like needless digging into the couple's private lives, but experts say Feldman was laying groundwork for his defense.

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At times during the long day of questioning, Brenda and Damon van Dam appeared openly exasperated by the tough questioning dished out by Feldman. The attorney for murder defendant David Westerfield focused on the couple's drug use, their alleged "swinging lifestyle," and lies they told to police early in the investigation into Danielle van Dam's disappearance. Many of his questions were ruled irrelevant, and at times it appeared to the untrained observer that the attorney was asking the same questions over and over as he tried to find a wording that satisfied the judge. But legal experts gave Feldman's savvy courtroom performance high marks.

"It may just look like not much was happening, but Steve Feldman really got in there, he did his homework and he got the answers to the questions he needed to get," criminal defense lawyer Gretchen von Helms said.

Some of the questioning was an attempt to catch the van Dams in inconsistencies. If Feldman can show that Brenda or Damon answered Thursday in ways that contradict or were inconsistent with their past statements or the testimony of others, it could hurt the prosecution's case when it goes before the future jury.

One example is when Feldman questioned Brenda about her night out at Dad's Cafe.

"You just told me you don't recall dancing with David Westerfield. Is that true?" Feldman asked.

"Yes," Brenda answered.

Feldman claims that he has witnesses who will testify that they saw Brenda dancing with Westerfield the night before Danielle was discovered missing. That could raise doubts about the mother among jurors, legal observers said.

"He wasn't asking those questions for anything but preparing a transcript so that he can use that for impeaching those witnesses at trial and he did that very effectively.," von Helms said. Feldman peppered both parents with questions about their drug use.

"How often did you smoke marijuana?' he asked.

During the preliminary hearing, the judge ruled that many of Feldman's questions about the van Dams' lifestyle were irrelevant. But during the trial, the defense will be permitted more latitude, and von Helms expects Feldman to bring up the subject again.

"It opens up to the defense to go in an say not only were they doing drugs and having sex and all these other things, which in one side of it, but also that it affected their ability to be parents," von Helms said.

The questioning also gave Feldman a chance to see how the van Dam's react to his questions. How the van Dams appear to a jury could plant seeds of doubt that affect their deliberations on Westerfield's guilt. Legal experts say if the parent's don't show any more emotion in trial than they did in court today, that factor alone could hurt them with a jury.

[Freedom2specul8]

Well, there is a dead body...., and a thief in the night=a case! (I have to get off the puter for a while..)

[sneakypete]

Yuck..more of the nasty.. ::wink::

Yup,and that's exactly why so many people are paying attention to this. Nothing will satsify them but videotapes of the Van Dams swapping partners,although nude 8x10 color glossies of their friends might do for a while. I've never seen so many people claim to be so outraged and disgusted,while being sexually obsessed at the same time. I think a lot of these posters are in desperate need of getting laid.

[MizSterious]

Actually, I think most of us would hope to be spared the videotapes. But we've been right all along about this bunch of white trash lowlifes. It's one thing to do what they do when there are no children to be harmed; it's quite another to put children in harm's way. The children should be removed. Immediately, before another poor lamb is lost.

[MizSterious]

I wonder: did anyone ask "what's the big deal" when Jon Benet was killed? How about when the Smith children were killed? I don't recall that question being asked then. I don't recall that question being asked often here when Chandra Levy went missing, although we all know young women her age do disappear all the time. But hundreds of threads have been generated here, as they were in other big cases. (Some of them, particularly on the Levy threads, were lurid almost beyond belief.)

[madprof98]

I've never seen so many people claim to be so outraged and disgusted,while being sexually obsessed at the same time.

Perhaps, but I think it's more like the Johnny Jihad case. Many of us want to believe that choosing a life of self-centered hedonism has consequences beyond the obvious California-style Creature Comforts. We want to believe that the wages of sin really is death, and in this case, that appears all too true. Unfortunately, it was not Damon and Brenda van Dam who perished.

[RangeRatt]

do you have the "Club CB" web address? I tried to find it, couldn't, and want to see what everyone is talking about...thanks.

[sneakypete]

Perhaps, but I think it's more like the Johnny Jihad case. Many of us want to believe that choosing a life of self-centered hedonism has consequences beyond the obvious California-style Creature Comforts.

Yeah,BOY! That must have been one libertine life he was living,sharing room with a bunch of religious nutcases still living in the 12th Century. If that was a hedonistic lifestyle,I'd really hate to see your version of a Spartan existence.

We want to believe that the wages of sin really is death,

Why? That makes no sense at all,other than on the "misery loves company and hates people who aren't miserable" level.

[Freedom2specul8]

Did you all hear john walsh on hannity and colmes? We'll HAVE to get the transcripts tomorrow..

[Freedom2specul8]

john walsh called the tabloid journalists exploiting the van dam's lifestyle 'bottom dwellers'.. It was quite a segment..

[FresnoDA]

FIRST PICTURES OF THE INFAMOUS BARB!!!

VAN DAM'S FRIEND Barbara Easton SPEAKS OUT

(03-19-2002) -
Barbara Easton probably never thought her social life would be so publicly aired, but several times during Brenda and Damon van Dam's testimony in the David Westerfield preliminary hearing, her activities the night Danielle van Dam vanished were revealed by her friends.

Brenda van Dam testified she smoked pot with her and Damon van Dam said she crawled into bed with him.

"Barbara layed next to me. I rolled over, put my arm around her, kissed her, rubbed her back some," said Damon van Dam.

Easton, 46, is a friend of Brenda and Damon van Dam's, who met Drenda at Dad's Steakhouse and Cafe in Poway about a year ago, according to Brenda.

Easton is a licensed salesperson in the mortgage brokerage field, who was with Brenda van Dam the night Danielle van Dam was last seen alive.

According to Brenda van Dam's testimony, Easton and Denise Kemel, another friend of Brenda's, consumed alcohol and smoked pot inside the Van Dam's garage before heading to the local bar for a girls night out.

Under cross examination, Brenda van Dam was asked about sexually suggestive dancing moves allegedly performed on her by Easton on the dance floor at Dad's.

"She did not touch me. I don't know how to explain it. She didn't physically touch me. She was maybe dancing with her hands like this, but she didn't touch me," says Brenda van Dam.

Easton told LOCAL 8 news by phone that the Van Dam's are the victims here and that she fully stands behind them. She would not give any specifics of the case because she says she is under a court imposed gag order.

Although Easton never took the stand in the Westerfield case, her interview with a San Diego Police Detective is part of the court documents introduced at the preliminary hearing.

As far as Westerfield's case is concerned, Easton says that it's too bad he didn't have to take the stand.

[FresnoDA]

BOTTOM DWELLERS!!! Hey, we are famous!! LOL

[Freedom2specul8]

John walsh agrees...the vd's are being victimized.. he said mosts parents are victimized by the media ..and the media can and does destroy parents of missing and murdered children.

[Freedom2specul8]

I thought you'd get a kick out of that. Please note, I did not exploit that little jab.. LOL

[FresnoDA]

Club CB link....(Warning-Graphic Content!)

Welcome to

[FresnoDA]

John Walsh is a Television Host, with all due respect...he has ZERO LE background......and thanks for the soft glove treatment, but don't hold back, we expect no mercy, as we give none back....LOL

[FresnoDA]

Ping post #30....first pictures of BARB LOL!!

[fnord]

you can't see the difference between voyeurism and a case that's full of holes? c'mon, you are better than that ...

[homeschool mama]

What John does *not* understand is that a deviant lifestyle brings deviant people into the home...dangerous groundwork for the kiddos, and Danielle in particular in this case.

[Valpal1]

I feel better now.