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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.

Video
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Video Summary Of Day 3
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: Southflanknorthpawsis;MizSterious;FresnoDA;ALL
Now, Court TV...they will play Brenda Van Dams testimony we didn't see yesterday.

sw

61 posted on 06/07/2002 12:03:23 PM PDT by spectre
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To: MizSterious;all
In the transcripts...did BVD really say "they were green"?

No wonder Damon is speaking of the child in the present tense...Brenda screwed up big time in the 911 call if she used the word "were"...

sw

62 posted on 06/07/2002 12:07:22 PM PDT by spectre
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To: Karson
Great minds! :~) sw
63 posted on 06/07/2002 12:08:35 PM PDT by spectre
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To: Southflanknorthpawsis
Just a guess since a lot of these sleazeballs are married.

Depends what you mean by "married"

64 posted on 06/07/2002 12:11:23 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: Karson
Did she say Danielle's eyes were green?????? Past tense?

Opppppppsssssssss

65 posted on 06/07/2002 12:13:42 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: spectre
I want to know why that womnan on court TV is defending "alternate " live styles....ummmmmmmmm
66 posted on 06/07/2002 12:16:09 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: RnMomof7;spectre;Karson;MizSterious;FresnoDA; Southflanknorthpawsis;demsux;John Jamieson;
Listen to the 911 tape again. You can hear the alarm beep. Unless she's standing on top of it, it's loud. You can hear it clearly.
67 posted on 06/07/2002 12:17:09 PM PDT by Jaded
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To: Jaded; All
Listen to the 911 tape again.

Every time I listen to it I hear something different. I hear kids voices in the background but they don't sound upset to me the way Brenda said in court, sounds like they are playing... video games? The last time I listened, I noticed Brenda didn't start to cry until she was ending the call with the dispatcher.

At what point in the call is the dog barking?

68 posted on 06/07/2002 12:27:29 PM PDT by Karson
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To: RnMomof7
I want to know why that womnan on court TV is defending "alternate " live styles....ummmmmmmmm

Same here. I wish I could ask her what would it take for her to say "ewwww"!

69 posted on 06/07/2002 12:33:59 PM PDT by Karson
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To: Karson
I don't know, but I will check it again when I get home and d/l it. Otherwise we have a team of experts from a couple of forums going over all the trial stuff with a fine tooth comb. If it's there, it'll be found. It's a good thing we get Fridays off with this trial.
70 posted on 06/07/2002 12:34:50 PM PDT by Jaded
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To: RnMomof7
That woman on Court TV, Lisa Bloom is seriously defending BVD's "open marriage" and claims it's no one's business, outside of the marriage, what those two do.

If this is the case, then she shouldn't judge David Westerfield for his porno...should she?

She can't make the connection between the drugs, booze and sex and Danielle's disappearance. It flys over her head.

sw

71 posted on 06/07/2002 12:36:22 PM PDT by spectre
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To: spectre
I have just sent that SL** the following email ...I find her mocking of traditional marriage an outrage..is she the reporter that is gay? I had heard one was...or maybe she has her own open marriage to defend

My mail to her

I just wonder if you would know moral behavior if you tripped over it.

It is one thing to be indifferent to the amoral behavior of others ....it is another to cheerleader it. And you do.

You mock and taunt the moral behavior of 90% of the American public. To Some of us marriage is more that a financial arrangement, it is a spiritual bond. One that requires a fidelity which you appear to not be able to appreciate.

This man has not been found guilty. It has not been proven the child was sexually abused..It is one thing to have even handed commentary and another to be the lead prosecutor ..which is the role you have taken. I will be following the trial on the internet from now on. I can not stand your amoral commentary.

72 posted on 06/07/2002 12:39:20 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: Jaded
Brenda:...There was a door opened on the house and I couldn't figure out which one it was and it was our side garage door. But, but, um, I didn't check the bed and um..

Dispatcher: About what time did you come home?

Brenda: I came home about 2. And my husband was home with them. He was home. And he said the lights were on and I guess he went to sleep. The back door was cracked, he said. The back door and the side garage door, he found the back door cracked.

I wish we had the transcipts of both the VD's. She says, DVD found the back door cracked and side door

Then (from the tape), when she got home the side garage door was open.

As I remember, DVD testified that when he found the back door open he locked it and looked in, and saw that the side garage door was locked, by the positioning of the bolt.

Maybe I'm not seeing this correctly, but after hearing DVD's testimony, this open door, locked door scenario, laid out by BVD in the transcript of the tape, isn't making any sense to me.

73 posted on 06/07/2002 12:41:50 PM PDT by theirjustdue
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To: RnMomof7
GO MOM!!!!!
74 posted on 06/07/2002 12:42:59 PM PDT by Jaded
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To: MizSterious
Interesting. Thanks for posting this 911 conversation; I had not seen it before. Does anyone else find it interesting that Brenda is so disoriented that she describes Danielle as 6' tall, yet knows that she herself is only 5'4"? Then in answer to the question if anything had been disturbed in the house, she quickly (defensively?) talks about the open doors, etc. Yet this woman could not answer a simple question about height? It seems to me that justifying the scene was foremost on her mind, not Danielle. Just MHO.
75 posted on 06/07/2002 12:43:15 PM PDT by twigs
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To: theirjustdue
She makes it sound like they were open at the same time. Ah, what wicked webs we weave... this is very strange.

Check at Jams' there is a running transcript. They've done a great job too. Jam's

I trust you have the PH transcripts. Let me know if you don't.

76 posted on 06/07/2002 12:55:33 PM PDT by Jaded
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To: twigs
Hmmmm... So Brenda thought her daughter was a six foot tall seven year old with green eyes? And she mentioned twice in the 911 call that Damon was home. I thought that odd too. It was as if she were trying to reassure herself that he was actually home that night.
77 posted on 06/07/2002 1:01:17 PM PDT by Lauratealeaf
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To: Jaded
I missed that question yesterday...awesome ..."so you all went downstairs together? "

Brenda "yes" .."so did Damon have to get dressed?"...LOL.......Her husband was nude in front of her friend and she does not remember...to me that calls the whole he was under and she was over into question..seems Damon sleeps nude..and she does not remember him dressing...interesting

78 posted on 06/07/2002 1:01:26 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: Karson
You may have something to work on, and look out for.

Never picked up on the way she formed the sentence about

her eyes.

79 posted on 06/07/2002 1:19:07 PM PDT by jdontom
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To: MizSterious
Dispatcher: Okay. Think positive thoughts and everything will be okay, okay?

Hmm. The Power of Positive Thinking by Schuller is still popular in the Golden state I see... ;-)

FRegards,
PrairieDawg

80 posted on 06/07/2002 1:20:12 PM PDT by PrairieDawg
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