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Westerfield On Trial (WEEK 1 Recap): Brenda Van Dam, Dad's Bar
KGTV 10 News-San Diego ^ | June 7, 2002 | KGTV

Posted on 06/06/2002 10:15:36 PM PDT by FresnoDA

Westerfield On Trial....WEEK 1 Recap....

 

Day 3: Brenda Van Dam, Dad's Bar

Mother Of Murdered Girl Breaks Down On Stand

Posted: 7:16 p.m. PDT June 6, 2002
Updated: 7:42 p.m. PDT June 6, 2002
SAN DIEGO -- No concerted effort was made between Brenda and Damon van Dam to withhold "lifestyle" information from police officers investigating the disappearance of their daughter, the mother testified Thursday.
Brenda van Dam was on the witness stand most of the third day of David Westerfield's kidnap and murder trial.

Westerfield, 50, is accused of abducting and killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam and could face the death penalty if convicted. The child's mother reported her missing the morning of Feb. 2.

Brenda van Dam told prosecutor Jeff Dusek she disclosed to officers everything about her "open marriage" once they made it clear that it was important.

The mother said she didn't discuss her decision not to disclose information with her husband.

"I would have told (the police) anything they needed to get Danielle back," the mother said.

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VideoAttorney Milt Silverman's Analysis Of Day 3
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Brenda van Dam said nothing else was taken the night Danielle was abducted.

"I wish they'd taken everything else but her," the mother said tearfully.

Earlier in the day, Brenda van Dam testified there were never any sex parties at her Sabre Springs home.

She later said that during a Halloween party last October, she and her husband had sex with a friend and her husband in the van Dam home.

Westerfield, a self-employed engineer, is accused of kidnapping the second- grader, killing her and dumping the body near rural Dehesa Road, where it was found more than three weeks after she disappeared.

Brenda van Dam broke down a minute into her testimony, when asked to name her children and give their ages, then later while testifying about a father-daughter dance Danielle was scheduled to attend with her father a week after she vanished.

Dusek asked the mother about the first of two "girls nights out" at Dad's Cafe in Poway with two girlfriends. Dusek asked if any men were invited to the Jan. 25 get-together at Dad's Cafe. Van dam said no.

"Was there a sex party at your house when you got home?" Dusek asked, hoping to pre-empt an anticipated defense attack on the mother during cross-examination.

"There's never been a sex party at my house," she responded matter-of-factly.

She also described previous contacts with the defendant -- she had said he bought her a drink at Dad's -- including a visit to his house with Danielle and her younger brother to sell Girl Scout cookies.

While the children were playing in his back yard, she said the twice-divorced Westerfield told her he was interested in her friend, Barbara Easton, who had caught his eye at Dad's.

On the second outing to Dad's, Easton walked right up to Westerfield and began talking to him, van Dam told the court.

Brenda denied dancing with the defendant on either occasion.

Earlier in the day, Medical Examiner Brian Blackbourne was asked about the cause and time of Danielle's death.

The girl's body was so decomposed when found by a volunteer searcher that it was impossible to establish a cause of death, Blackbourne had said Wednesday.

Thursday, he estimated her time of death at anywhere from 10 days to six weeks before the body was found Feb. 27.

Blackbourne also said it was possible that air temperature could be a variable in judging when she died. That led defense attorney Steven Feldman to suggest that especially hot days in late February could have accelerated the decomposition process.

In his opening statement Tuesday, Feldman told the jury that Westerfield could not possibly have dumped Danielle's body after Feb. 6, because he was under constant scrutiny by the police and the media.

"Is it your professional opinion (Danielle) could have been alive Feb. 6?" Feldman asked.

"Based on my observations? Yes," Blackbourne said.

"Feb. 7?"

"Yes."

"Feb. 17?" Feldman pressed.

"Possibly, yes," Blackbourne answered.

"Depending on the weather conditions, Feb. 22nd?" Feldman asked.

"That's pushing it for what I can accept," Blackbourne said.

He also testified he checked Danielle's body for signs of sexual assault but found none, primarily because of tissue damage from decomposition and animal activity.

Wednesday, the child's father admitted he lied to police about use of marijuana in the garage of his house the night of Feb. 1 -- hours before his daughter turned up missing.

He also told the court that on prior occasions he engaged in sex with both of Brenda's female friends.

A bartender at Dad's Cafe in Poway characterized Westerfield as a "people watcher," but termed a police report on the behavior of Brenda van Dam and two friends inaccurate.

Sean Brown said he was at work as a bar manager on the two nights that have come up in testimony in the case: Jan. 25 and Feb. 1.

It was Feb. 2 that the Sabre Springs 7-year-old was discovered missing.

Westerfield would talk to a regular customer, "hang out" and watch people as they drank and danced, Brown said. The bartender said he never saw the defendant dance or play pool.

Brown said Westerfield would drink 16-ounce rum-and-cokes.

"I believe David had a few drinks," Brown said of Feb. 1. "He was feeling good. He'd taken the edge off. I don't believe he was drunk."

He said the same about Brenda van Dam.

"I don't think she was drunk," Brown testified. "She was in good spirits but was in control of herself. She wasn't slurring."

Under cross-examination by co-defense counsel Robert Boyce, Brown said a police report containing his statements on the behavior of Brenda and her two friends was inaccurate.

Brown testified he warned prosecutor Jeff Dusek about the discrepancy during the lunch hour -- hours before he testified.

The statement from police indicated the women were "flirtatious toward males" and "partying hard."

Brown testified that the women were having fun as girlfriends do. He said he never saw them act inappropriately.

Brown was dismissed as a witness as the court day ended.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: vandam; westerfield
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To: BARLF;RNMomof7;Jaded;MizSterious
I was watching CTV, and one of the Commentators said she could hear the kids in the background saying something like "she went outside"...That is why I am asking for a confirmation or denial of the perceived conversation on the tape. Remember, by this time, the neighbor's 2 kids were there too. Lot's of background info.

Damon testified that Danielle came into their bedroom and did the "potty-dance" around the bed...in her "sleep-walking" mode and they would lead her to the bathroom. EUREKA..sleep-walking? Strange conclusion, IMO.

sw

321 posted on 06/08/2002 9:38:46 AM PDT by spectre
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To: Jaded
"WHY didn't he walk a few steps further and ask David if he'd seen her as well. He was out there, loading his RV."

Let me put it another way--if you're frantic about a missing child (and most parents would be), why on earth wouldn't you ask the guy who's standing in the driveway across the street? Why wouldn't you ask every single person in sight, and knock on doors for those not in sight? Wouldn't you, if it were your little girl?

322 posted on 06/08/2002 9:56:32 AM PDT by MizSterious
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To: Rheo
Someone may have answered your question, but there are pictures of the bedroom doors (displayed at trial already) showing the decorations on the kid's doors indicating boy/girl etc.
323 posted on 06/08/2002 10:03:15 AM PDT by cyncooper
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To: Jaded
Good questions......If he had Danielle in his MH would he have come back with her inside the MH........that close to the scene of the crime? If she wasn't in the MH,where did he hide her during this trip back to the neighborhood? Didn't he leave the MH down the street because he couldn't get to his house for all the cop cars & media? Remember DW checked his pool etc,after Mark told him about Danielle's disappearance or so the story goes. Nothing but questions.......Nothing makes sense.
324 posted on 06/08/2002 10:04:46 AM PDT by BARLF
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To: cyncooper
Thank you......why tho did Detective Collins state that when he went to the home at 3am on the 3rd, there was nothing on the outside of the doors to indicate sex of child....could only determine rooms after entering the room?? I guess others must have seen those decals and it will be in a transcript I haven't read yet.
325 posted on 06/08/2002 10:09:47 AM PDT by Rheo
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To: Rheo
OR they were added AFTER he visited.....
326 posted on 06/08/2002 10:17:24 AM PDT by Politicalmom
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To: Rheo
I had not heard about the pee pee dance, what is next??...

'Cause DVD called it the "potty-dance" -- as if that makes a difference. ;)

327 posted on 06/08/2002 10:20:31 AM PDT by It's me
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To: Politicalmom
that was my thought....still searching thru the transcripts to find any evidence techs statements.
328 posted on 06/08/2002 10:21:00 AM PDT by Rheo
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To: Jaded
Why the heck didn't he ask David. He was there loading the RV.

The RV wasn't there. It was kept elsewhere. He wwasn't loading it on the street.

329 posted on 06/08/2002 10:22:07 AM PDT by It's me
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To: MizSterious
Absolutely you would ask anyone that is outside if they saw her or saw anything.

nycgal was looking for transcripts of the searchers...is there any?

330 posted on 06/08/2002 10:22:20 AM PDT by Rheo
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To: MizSterious
It was frustrating at the beginning for them to start the investigation, however, because of course this started off as a missing person -- she walked away. Isn't this an odd thing to say, when you're claiming the child was kidnapped?

I took this to mean that the police, ala the Chandra Levy case, treated the case initially as Danielle wandering about and not as an abduction.

331 posted on 06/08/2002 10:25:40 AM PDT by cyncooper
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To: Rheo
Try the links I posted to you a few posts back. The PH transcripts describe some of what the searchers found; over at the Jameson's site, there are the running transcripts, one thread for each witness posted.
332 posted on 06/08/2002 10:26:44 AM PDT by MizSterious
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To: It's me
Saturday morning, it was there for at least an hour.
333 posted on 06/08/2002 10:28:25 AM PDT by Jaded
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To: Politicalmom
Nope, Brenda testified they had been there about 2 years. So, that must be true,she was sworn to tell the truth. course Bill Clinton was sworn to tell the truth,too.
334 posted on 06/08/2002 10:29:02 AM PDT by BARLF
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To: John Jamieson
28th probably means less than one in hundred. Two of them is one in Ten thousand, matching his name is one in one million. I think that is hard to ignore.

Really? One of my daughter's was born on September 14th. Two other girls on our street of 12 homes were also born on 9-14. My husband's cousin was born on 9-14 in the same year. She and my daughter are best friends even though she lives in Ireland.

I really do think it is just coincidence about the Danielle names.

335 posted on 06/08/2002 10:30:07 AM PDT by It's me
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To: MizSterious;nycgal
thanks...working my way thru them.

Leaving for the day now so will try to read more of them tonight.

nycgal, did you catch those links to read about the searchers?

336 posted on 06/08/2002 10:30:16 AM PDT by Rheo
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To: spectre
I admit up front I got my PI's license from a Cracker Jack box.:-)

After listening to the 911 call, my guess is that whatever happend to Danielle happened while her mother was at the bar. Brenda wants the open garage door in the timeline very early on.

This would also explain the rapid shooing out of the 'guests' at 2:30-3:00, depending on which testimony you're believing at the moment.

Conversations at the bar - hooking up Barb and Keith, Keith taking his 'V' pill, inviting folks back to the house - suggest that there were plans for more fun and games back at the Van Dam house. But that was put to an abrupt halt after Brenda got home and after she asked how the kids were.

I can believe that they kicked everyone out, then spent the rest of the early morning constructing and memorizing their stories. Could they have gone over to DW's MH and planted a couple of hairs, a few drops of blood, knowing that the plan was to sic the police on him? Those clues are set up on the 911 call.

Brenda's 'hi,Dave' at the PH and hate stares at the trial suggest there's more there than they've admitted.

And does anyone know just how much pizza she brought home to feed a family of 5 for dinner, and then 6 adults after drinking and smoking pot? Does pizza soothe the munchies? Maybe it was cut into very small slices. :-)

337 posted on 06/08/2002 10:31:44 AM PDT by pinz-n-needlez
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To: Rheo
They called 911, for crying out loud, to get help to look for her. If they had set about searching on their own without calling the police you would be criticizing them for not calling the authorities right away and not being concerned enough, etc. I'll also throw in that Brenda sounded extremely stressed/panicked in her 911 call and as the call is ending she lets her control down and starts to cry as she hangs up. (standard disclaimer: I do not approve of the parental lifestyle)
338 posted on 06/08/2002 10:32:41 AM PDT by cyncooper
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To: Jaded
Saturday morning, it was there for at least an hour.

Oh, of course, that's when he used the hose and left it on the grass -- not rolled up neatly!!!

339 posted on 06/08/2002 10:37:05 AM PDT by It's me
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To: It's me;Jaded
I agree with It's me about the MH that Sat. AM. I thought DW left in the suv got the MH and came back to look for his wallet,couldn't get to his house because of the traffic. Where can we go to clear this up???? help, help.....clarification.
340 posted on 06/08/2002 10:38:34 AM PDT by BARLF
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