Posted on 06/27/2002 6:47:45 AM PDT by FresnoDA
Amid the superstores and strip malls that pass for community in the suburbs of San Diego, some small-town traditions remain. Parents still come out to watch their kids play Little League baseball, just like their parents did.
Theres sunshine and sunflower seeds. Dirt and grass.
But in the Carmel Mountain Ranch Little League, grass is a touchy subject this season. Parents have admitted smoking it, and one of them says a coach supplied it.
Grass. Marijuana, that is.
The coach is Rich Brady (not the well-known San Diego clothier with the same name). Some wanted Brady to resign, but others involved with his team threatened to pull their children out of the league if he left, according to a league official. Brady declined comment on the subject. The dispute went all the way to Little League headquarters in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
The Carmel Mountain Ranch league was covering its bases, according to the league official. The general consensus from everyone involved is unless the man is charged with something, and his performance on the field is affected by choices in his personal life, at this point there are no grounds to remove him, the official says.
Rich Brady is still coaching, but Its one of those situations where we wish he would go away quietly, says another coach.
And who is the parent who says Brady supplied marijuana?
Brenda van Dam.
The disappearance of her 7-year-old daughter, Danielle, set off a San Onofresize chain reaction in San Diego on February 2. Three days later, Brenda and her husband, Damon, were on national television, pleading for Danielles return. They kept making pleas in daily news conferences before dozens of reporters and photographers outside their Sabre Springs homewith the man suspected of abducting their daughter just two doors away.
Police quickly focused on the neighbor, David Westerfield, as thousands of volunteers kept searching for Danielle. Twenty days after she disappeared, the cops arrested Westerfield, who pleaded not guilty to murdering her. It took five more days for searchers to find Danielles body, under a tree by a road in East County.
Westerfields murder trialhe faces the death penaltywas scheduled to start May 17. A judge imposed a gag order on most of the trial participantsincluding the van Dams, the police and the district attorney. San Diego Magazine offered each a chance to comment for this story. They either declined, citing the gag order, or did not respond.
The van Dams
Despite the reluctance of many in the media to explore the van Dams lifestyle choices, one thing is clear: The question of lifestyleboth the Van Dams and that of their neighbor, David Westerfieldis very likely to be a central issue in Westerfields murder trial. And it will be impossible for the media to ignore.
Looking back, Brenda van Dam called it a girls night out. Thats how she described an evening of drinking and dancing with her two girlfriends, on the same night her daughter disappeared. Brenda offered the following version of events that evening:
The three women met two men at a bar. Brady was one of them. They went back to the van Dam house about 2 a.m. Damon van Dam, who had remained home with Danielle and her two brothers, joined the group to eat leftover pizza. The pizza party broke up around 3 a.m., and the van Dams went to bed.
Later that morning, about 9 a.m., the van Dams discovered their daughter was missing.
In the days following Danielles disappearance, allegations about her parents lifestyle began to emerge. There was talk of spouse-swapping and drug use by the van Dams. It had the makings of a public relations nightmare.
At that time, attention was starting to get diverted to allegations of family lifestyle, says a spokeswoman for Fleishman Hillard, an international public relations and communications firm. A week after Danielle disappeared, four employees from the firms San Diego office started working with the van Dams as unpaid volunteers.
The spokeswoman says the van Dams needed help also because of the news crushthe sheer number of reporters now working the storyand the fear other news [stories] would begin to override the search for Danielle. At that point, there was still a child missing, she says. That was the concern.
The Fleishman Hillard employees worked with the van Dams for eight days, but the spokeswoman says the pair didnt need any coaching. In the media, there was a lot of second-guessing, a lot of speculation that the van Dams were heavily media trained. Frankly, thats not true. They knew what they wanted to say; they knew where they wanted the attention to stay focused. We just helped them along.
The spokeswoman has nothing but praise for the van Damsas people and as parents. I dont know that I could have been that strong. I think their strength came from the belief they were doing the right thing in trying to find their daughter. I dont think many people would have been as brave as the van Dams, she says. They were so selfless ... putting themselves through public scrutiny. They proved themselves to be ... good parents [who] do everything they can for their children. Thats exactly what they did.
The public saw another side of the van Dams during David Westerfields preliminary hearing in March. Thats when Brenda described a previous girls night outon January 25, a week before Danielle disappeared. On that night, Brenda testified, she saw Westerfield at Dads, a restaurant and bar in Poway, and he bought her alcohol. But she said she couldnt remember how many drinks she had.
A week later, on February 1, Brenda testified, she, her husband and her two girlfriends smoked marijuana in the van Dam garage. Then the three women went back to Dads for their second girls night out in eight days. Westerfield was back at the bar, too. Brenda testified she and her two girlfriends smoked marijuana again that night in the parking lot at Dadsmarijuana supplied by Rich Brady, the Little League coach.
Brenda acknowledged she told police her two girlfriends were dancing in a sexually provocative manner, rubbing their bodies together. One of the girlfriends, identified as Barbara Easton, tried to grab Brendas breasts, according to the statement Brenda gave investigators.
Westerfields attorney, Steven Feldman, pressed Brenda about her relationship with Easton. Would you characterize Barbara Easton as an intimate friend of yours? Feldman asked.
What do you mean by intimate? Brenda said.
Very close ... sexually very close, Feldman said.
The prosecution objected, and the judge ruled Brenda did not have to answer the question.
When Brenda and her friends came back to the van Dam house on February 1, Easton went upstairs to see Damon van Dam. Under questioning from Westerfields attorney, Damon admitted he initially withheld information from police about what he did with Easton. When he did provide details, he acknowledged telling investigators that Easton got in bed with him. Later during the same hearing, he testified he and Easton kissed and he rubbed her back while he lay in bedbut she was on top of the covers.
The Media
Every few years, San Diego hits a lottery no one wants to win. Something really bad happens, and it makes national news. Heavens Gate. Santana High. Danielle van Dam.
She was reported missing at the start of the February ratings period, when TV stations measure audiences to determine advertising rates. There were no other big national stories in early February. There was no news from Afghanistan. The Olympics hadnt started. Enron had already been imploding for a while.
Its a pretty sensational story, says Mike Stutz, news director for KGTV (Channel 10). It certainly generated tons of interest. We saw it in the numbers [ratings]. There were different approaches in terms of how the van Dams personal life was reported. We stayed away from getting into that, not knowing if it had anything to do with the actual crime itself.
At an April 27 Society of Professional Journalists seminar, held on the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University to examine the van Dam coverage, Stutz and KNSD (Channel 7/39) news director Jim Sanders defended their decisions to not air information about the familys lifestyle. Sanders says he confirmed lifestyle reports from two credible sources, but chose not to air the information unless the police department told us it was relevant to the case.
Stutz says ratings had nothing to do with way the story was covered. [But] its nice to have em come along, he says. I didnt approach it [as] Okay, we gotta get a big number here, lets have more Westerfield.
But there was a missing girlwearing a choker and a 7-year-olds smile.
The national networks had their angle. Grieving parents make great television, news professionals say. And those news pros believe the networks go easy on the lifestyle aspect. Shaking her head and looking down, Diane Sawyer seemed barely able to ask the question about the rumors when she interviewed the van Dams via satellite on Good Morning America.
The networks, according to insiders, dont want to ruin their chances for any future access to the van Damssuch as that big sit-down interviewonce the trials over. So they make nice with them, in the words of one producer who made a special trip to San Diego for that very reason.
The tabloids were in town as well, and they had their angle. Danielle was the new JonBenet Ramsey. The two had a lot in common. They were cute little girls, both from relatively affluent neighborhoods, and TV stations across the country played home video of them incessantly.
Who can forget the images of JonBenet performing in that cowboy outfit? And who can forget those images of Danielle playing to the camera, being a happy 7-year-old?
The tabloids played up the van Dams lifestyle, too. But the local media, with the exception of radio talk show host Rick Roberts, didnt talk very much about that. Instead, they were making some bizarre comments about the case.
On the air, KUSI (Channel 51) reporter Paul Bloom said he was not allowed to think about certain aspects of the investigation. San Diego Magazine asked Bloom what he meant. As a journalist, he says, Im not allowed to speculate, or think that way at all. Bloom adds he was happy with the way he covered the story. Every day of the week there was a new rumor ... new speculation. There was no confirmation that it had anything to do with Danielles disappearance.
Instead of questioning the van Dams lifestyle, the local media went with one of its favorite anglesfear. [Its] Polly Klaas redux, KUSIs John Soderman told viewers, referring to the Northern California girl abducted at home and murdered by a stranger in 1993.
The media didnt know if that was the case. David Westerfield was no stranger to the van Dams. Brenda and her daughter even went to Westerfields house a few days before she disappearedto sell Girl Scout cookies. Westerfield bought one box of Thin Mints from Danielle and her mother, according to her testimony in court. During that visit, Brenda testified that she asked to go inside Westerfields house to look at his remodeled kitchen, while Danielle went in the backyard to look at the pool.
Danielle van Dam wasnt another Polly Klaas.
In an interview with San Diego Magazine, Soderman defends his Polly Klaas analogy. Basically, if Westerfield did it, you still have somebody in your neighborhood who scooped up your child, he says.
I think [readers and viewers] were frightened needlessly, says Dean Nelson, founder and director of the journalism program at Point Loma Nazarene University. Im not ready to demonize [the media], but I wish they were more skeptical.
The media have a tough job, Nelson says, because they cant be too skeptical, either. Lets say something else happened, and a warning could have served the public well ... Police say Lock your doors, and the media say, Oh, thats bogus, theyre just buying time.
But the police were clearly buying time following Danielles disappearance, according to Nelson. The police knew this was not a stranger, he says. I dont fault the police department, because they knew that was going to be a temporary fear, because they knew who they wanted: Now we can all breathe easier. Okay, it was somebody down the street, so I guess it wasnt a stranger after all.
The Police
At 2:30 in the morning on February 5, homicide investigators from the San Diego Police Department are standing outside David Westerfields house, preparing to go inside and search it. Sergeant Bill Holmes is one of the cops.
Sergeant Holmes, what are you doing here? a reporter asks.
Were here to relieve robbery, he says. Robbery detectives had also been assigned to Danielles case.
At 2:30 in the morning? Thats some pretty high-priced talent.
Holmes smiles. Thats the way they want it, he says.
Over the next several hours, Holmes and his crew search Westerfields house. Its easy to track their progress. They take dozens of pictures before dawn, and the flash from the camera lights up the windows in each room.
Sergeant Holmes, you werent here to relieve robbery, the reporter says to him when he comes outside.
Holmes smiles again. Well, we were. Kinda. Sorta.
Police arranged to have search warrants in the case sealed by the court, so the media couldnt find out what investigators took from Westerfields home. It was an extraordinary effort to keep the information confidential. And it was a spectacular failure.
Sources close to the investigation started talking about the van Dams lifestyle almost immediately. Then came reports of blood in Westerfields motor home, and child pornography on his computer.
The cops were furious, according to those same sources. The police department threatened to fire anyone who talked about the case. They were after the leaks, a source says.
Police acknowledge being angry over the leaks. Yeah, we were pissed off, says Steve Creighton, an assistant chief. But he says the leaks did not result in any large-scale internal investigation. Its not even a blip on the radar screen.
Two police detectives, Michael Ott and Mark Keyser, made big news for the department when they arrested Westerfield. Then they made news again, in a rather embarrassing way. Ott and Keyser attempted to visit Westerfield in jailwithout his attorney present. The police department reportedly reprimanded them.
Westerfields legal team started hammering Ott and Keyser, saying they had repeatedly violated Westerfields rights during the investigation. The lawyers released a memo from the district attorneys office saying the two detectives made false statements during another murder investigation two years ago. Westerfields lawyers used that memo in a legal maneuver
to review the personnel files of Ott, Keyser and 10 other police officers involved in the case for any reports of misconduct during their careers. Judge William Mudd ruled the defense could have information from the file of one unidentified officer.
I think its safe to say Ott and Keyser are the Mark Fuhrmans of the Westerfield trial, says a court insider, referring to the rogue cop vilified by the defense in the O.J. Simpson case.
The pressure of such a high-profile investigation was getting to the cops. The detectives are sick of it, a source says. Others say there were even references to the case as The Isle of the van Damned.
Creighton says he had not heard the detectives were sick of the case. But theyre tired, he says. Its a long and involved case, with a lot of long hours.
The San Diego Police Department continued to handle the case with the utmost of care. Chief David Bejarano himself went to the van Dams home to meet with the family when Danielles body was identified. Then he talked to reporters. But at a follow-up news conference downtown, it wasnt the police chief running the show.
It was District Attorney Paul Pfingst, who is running for reelection.
The District Attorney
The timing was interesting. Just four days before the primary election, Pfingst appeared on live television, talking about one of the biggest developments in the case yet. He thanked the volunteers who worked so hard to find Danielle. He expressed the emotions felt by law enforcement and everyone else in San Diego over the murder of a 7-year-old girl.
Politicians live for moments such as this, especially politicians who have not been getting good media coverage. Pfingsts opponents had been relentlessly criticizing him, pointing out ethical lapses and declining morale in his office. But all that was getting pushed aside by news about Danielledelivered by the district attorney himself.
He was doing it for one reason onlythat is, for the election, says Deputy District Attorney Dave Stutz, a longtime critic of Pfingst. He was grandstanding and campaigning. He took advantage of free press during a campaign. Once again, it shows he makes his decisions based on politics.
Citing the gag order imposed on everyone involved with David Westerfields trial, a spokeswoman in the district attorneys office says Pfingst wont commentnot even to deny Stutz accusations. But Pfingsts former spokeswoman, Gayle Falkenthal, comes to his defense.
I cant believe anyone in their right mind would think that Paul Pfingst wished this case into being, just for an election, says Falkenthal, now the vice president of marketing and communications for the San Diego Convention Center Corporation. Because charges had already been filed against Westerfield, she says, the district attorneys office was in charge of the case not the police. So it was appropriate for Pfingst to take over the news conference, according to Falkenthal.
In my opinion, if the district attorney had really wanted to grandstand, he could have handled [Westerfields] arraignment himself, he could have been at the courthouse every day, he could have been at the parents home, she says. He didnt do any of that. There were lots of opportunities. He didnt do any of them.
Pfingst is in a runoff in November with the runner-up in the primary, Superior Court Judge Bonnie Dumanis. Westerfields trial may be a factor in the election.
Its heavy stuff. Careers could be on the line. Reputations may be damaged. Lives have been changed forever. Those are the big themes, playing out before a national audience.
But the case also shows up in small ways, in everyday conversation in Sabre Springs, where Danielle lived. A neighbor tells a story about planning a party. He calls to invite his friends who live in other parts of the city. What kind of party? they ask. A wife-swapping party?
His neighborhood now has a new nickname: Sabre Swings.
Undeserved or not, such has been the fallout. But is the van Dams lifestyle relevant in the Westerfield trial? Thats a question that was finally left for a judge to decide.
Just to clarify, it is not speculation. It is DW's statements to the media and to the police (see interview with Det. Redden, for example).
To be fair, we don't know when these witnesses were found. The prosecution gets a rebuttal to the defense and it sounds like these witnesses would be to rebut any assertations presented by the defense.
(What's wrong with witnesses testifying when called by the prosecution? they could claim their "five minutes of fame" by coming forward on behalf of the defense. Unless they are testifying to "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth...")
There is plenty of circumstancial evidence, the man is guilty as sin...Problem is, California has a real problem securing evidence...
How do you know he has NO HISTORY of child molestation? That evidence is usually suppressed...and you know it...
it's a good thing those pizza people were over or we wouldn't know if she actually disappeared at noon on Friday.
Herein lies the reason the stories of Brenda and Damon differ. Brenda takes off to go get 'pizza' (whatever that means). Damon comes home after work. Was Danielle there Friday evening ? Is everything a lie to cover this fact up ? Damon says pizza was from NOON, to cover for Brenda not really being gone to get pizza. The kids were left alone. Maybe Danielle took off then. The story of Brenda being in the shower when Barb/Denise arrive, then the story that Brenda/Danielle SURPRISED Barb by jumping out from behind another vehicle to surprise them. Why. Again, because Danielle wasn't there.
I think Danielle disappeared sometime Friday between NOON and 5:30pm. Damon and Brenda are covering up for this because Brenda was in a hurry to go OUT with friends and they both thought Danielle would SURELY show back up sometime. I think maybe the reason Damon wanted to get the partiers to go home early, is that he had to tell Brenda that Danielle never showed up. Then they had to work on cover stories, to keep it from looking like they were bad parents.
WHAT HAPPENED TO DANIELLE? Most likely case is that she wandered around the neighborhood, got picked up by a known sexual offender, then killed and dumped at a later time. Police did not have the means to investigate this possibility, because they are trying to follow leads that stem from her disappearing FROM THE HOME, LATE AT NIGHT on FRIDAY. If not true, and she disappeared early in the day, it would take a whole different manner of investigation. So , now , we may never find out what truly happened, because the parents have been trying to hide their mistakes.
And what about that dang dog bed???...where did it end up and what from what kind and color of fabric was it made?
Good post!
Doesn't this statement just about sum up the WHOLE of the police departments case against DW ??????
I think KIM has made an important point here, that everyone on the DW threads should READ and UNDERSTAND.
We all get so wrapped up in this, and sometimes we take it out on each other. Those that think DW did it, and those that think DAMON did it, and even those that think someone other than DAMON or DW did it, all have exactly the same proof.......NONE WHATSOEVER, NOT A CLUE, NOT A SINGLE PIECE OF IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE, OR RELIABLE EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY.
And yet we all continue to ARGUE so STRONGLY with each other.
Have you ever went on a ride-along with cops? (riding in patrol cars for an entire shift?) They sit in their cars for what, 6-8 hrs EVERY DAY just driving..they have been trained to see things you and I can't see, won't see or just simply don't see. It's AWESOME to watch them see and catch things other drivers don't see. During my coursework, for extra-curricular activities..I went on ride alongs in the innercity..mind you, I need to try it in nicer neighborhoods, but it would be oh so boring. I was shocked when I heard a cop turn on the local rock station. I had no idea they could listen to rock/music during their jobs. (gosh, naivete at it's finish..20 somethigns have so many preconceived notions about cops anyway) You'll be riding along, chitchatting with officer friendly, trying to be aware of your surroundings, thinking *you're* scoping out neighborhoods, thinking *you're* noticing things, "like I did" and then all of a sudden the cop could just swing in a parking lot cuz he sees guys playing craps against a wall drinking maddog 20/20. I'm like WOW! Where'd they come from...
So, yes, we want to assume Officer Friendly is doing his job..and is well trained enough so that he can detect things we would not. Do you remember the post I posted about the dog's ability to ''smell fear'' on suspects? I think some, not all but some cops do the same thing.
I did hear on FNC they found the child's DNA in Westerfield's closet...Hmmmmmm..wonder how that got in there...The man is guilty as sin...maybe he'll get convicted..even in crazy in KA...
A good Independence Day to you and your's, Jaded....Great minds can disagree even on FR...
At any rate..I have no doubt Mrs. Van Dam is and was a terrible Mom...But regardless....Westerfield is guilty as sin...
Hope your summer is great...
Brenda revealed, on Larry King Live on December 3, 2002, that their babysitter was a teenage boy.
#706 Seems to me, the blood on his clothes from that poor little girl...needs to be explained...
#707 That jacket is a big piece of evidence...not to mention his behavior on the days in question...I believe he’s guilty...
That bloodstain was small and faint. It wasnt seen by the dry-cleaners, and theres no report of anyone seeing it until the jacket had been in police custody for nearly a week. The stain itself wasnt sent to an outside laboratory to confirm the DNA results, only extracted DNA. One of the detectives who attempted to violate Westerfields constitutional rights was also a customer at that dry-cleaners. For these and other reasons, there has to be a question mark over that evidence.
His behavior? He only left home several hours after the kidnapping, and returned home twice that day, supposedly bringing Danielle back with him - extremely risky. He first went to the beach, where he was in close proximity to other people (but they heard nothing suspicious); and then to the desert, where there were several people hanging around his RV while its curtains were open, so they could look inside if they wanted to (and one person did, without seeing anything suspicious). These were both places he frequented (so this was normal behavior for him) and where his friends might have been, so its unlikely hed have gone there with a kidnapped child.
#706 How do you know he has NO HISTORY of child molestation? That evidence is usually suppressed...and you know it...
So guilty, no evidence required.
#715 I did hear on FNC they found the child’s DNA in Westerfield’s closet...Hmmmmmm..wonder how that got in there...The man is guilty as sin...
There was no testimony that her DNA was found in his closet.
No trace of him was found anywhere in the van Dam home. A profusely sweating man, who was supposedly inside that house for over an hour, yet the search dogs couldnt detect his scent there. That alone is reasonable doubt. And no trace of him at the body dump site either: the best the forensic people could do was some fibers there that were similar to fibers in his environment, but these could all have come from clothing the van Dams were wearing when they visited him earlier that week - incredibly, the criminalists didnt investigate that possibility. And there were many other fibers with the body, including with her fingernails, that couldnt be linked to him and therefore excluded him. The insect evidence also excluded him. That alone is also reasonable doubt. And no evidence in his house or vehicles of a sexual or even physical assault: the best they could do was two small bloodstains in or from his RV and none in his house - far less than one would expect if he were guilty, and far more consistent with an innocent explanation: Danielle was a headstrong, adventurous child, who could easily have snuck into his RV while it was parked unlocked outside her home, leaving behind that small amount of evidence.
These factors, and many more, are discussed in the book “Rush to Judgement: http://tinyurl.com/6bzzyf4.
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