By Alex Roth
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 26, 2002
At least two jurors cried yesterday after prosecutors in the David Westerfield trial showed pictures of nude young girls, including movies of what looked like girls screaming while being sexually assaulted.
Prosecutors say the images and videos, all of which were found on computer disks in Westerfield's house, reveal a motive for the kidnapping and killing of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.
Westerfield, 50, a self-employed engineer, lived two doors from the girl in Sabre Springs. He is being tried on charges of kidnapping and murdering the second-grader.
The pictures clearly had an emotional impact on the jury of six men, six women and six alternates. One female juror openly wept, while another wiped her eyes with tissues.
More pornography will be introduced into evidence as a result of a ruling yesterday by Superior Court Judge William Mudd, who lashed out at Westerfield's lead attorney after the jury had been sent home for the day.
Before the trial began earlier this month, Mudd ruled that only the images shown in court yesterday could be used as evidence. But the judge reversed himself yesterday in response to what he labeled a misimpression created by defense attorney Steven Feldman.
While cross-examining a prosecution computer expert, Feldman seemed to suggest that the pictures shown to the jury yesterday were the only ones found in Westerfield's home that might qualify as child pornography or otherwise qualify as especially obscene.
"You know, I know, that is not true," Mudd told Feldman after the jury had left the courtroom.
With that, the judge said prosecutors could introduce several binders filled with scores of additional sexually themed pictures. The images were found on disks and computers in Westerfield's house, prosecutors say.
The judge said he would tolerate "no distortions to the people of this community that are going to make this decision. They are now going to know everything."
"If this jury wants to look at all this material, they're going to be welcomed to do it," Mudd told the attorneys. "This door has been opened like a barnyard."
Jurors saw about 14 pictures and videos yesterday, all of which were displayed on a television screen in a darkened courtroom. Many of the pictures depicted what appeared to be young girls in their early to mid-teens in various nude and seminude poses. Some appeared to be pre-pubescent or in the early stages of puberty.
Other images included a cartoon picture of a young girl in pigtails having sex, and several videos of what appear to be girls in school dresses screaming while being sexually assaulted. In one of the videos, the girl seems to be struggling as two men hold her down.
It was unclear how many additional images the jury will be allowed to see as a result of Mudd's ruling. It also was unclear what those images depict.
Prosecutor George "Woody" Clarke said authorities have "hundreds and hundreds" of pornographic images collected as possible evidence in the case.
Feldman later said there were about 80 "questionable" images – pictures that might qualify as child pornography.
At a preliminary hearing in March, prosecutors said some of the computer images found in Westerfield's house depicted bestiality.
In his lecture to Feldman yesterday, the judge said he originally limited the amount of pornography in the trial because he wanted to "minimize the prejudicial impact."
"This is a search for the truth, believe it or not," Mudd told Feldman. "And the truth is there are more than 13 images."
Feldman apologized to the judge and said any misimpressions he might have left with the jury were inadvertent.
"I certainly did not intend to end-run any of your rulings," Feldman said.
The controversy involved Feldman's cross-examination of James Watkins, a computer forensics examiner with the San Diego Police Department. Watkins testified that the images shown to the jury yesterday were found on five computer disks in Westerfield's home office.
Under questioning by Feldman, Watkins said authorities found 8,000 to 10,000 nude photographs and "several hundred" digital videos on Westerfield's home computers and disks.
Feldman asked Watkins whether it was true that the vast majority of those images depicted adult women, "with a couple of rare exceptions." Watkins agreed it was.
Feldman then made reference to the fact that of the thousands of images found in Westerfield's home, only a handful were being presented to the jury.
Watkins acknowledged that authorities don't know who downloaded any of the computer images found in Westerfield's house. Feldman seemed to suggest at several points that Westerfield's 18-year-old son might have been responsible for obtaining the material.
In other developments yesterday, Jennifer Shen, a San Diego Police Department criminalist, testified that a hair found on Danielle's nude body and another hair found in her hand both appeared to be Danielle's.
The girl's body was found off a rural stretch of Dehesa Road east of El Cajon about three weeks after she was reported missing from her home Feb. 2.
Shen also testified that an orange fiber tangled in the girl's plastic necklace at the time her body was found was similar to fibers found in laundry inside Westerfield's home and on bedding in his bedroom.
All the fibers were acrylic and of the same length, and all looked essentially identical under a microscope, she testified.
Similarly, blue-gray fibers found on Danielle's body were similar to fibers found on laundry in Westerfield's washer and dryer, Shen testified. The fibers were the same color, the same width and had the same "internal characteristics" under a microscope, she testified.
Shen said she didn't know the source for either the orange or blue fibers.
On cross-examination, Feldman suggested the fibers might have been transferred to Westerfield when he saw Danielle's mother at a Poway bar the night the girl vanished from her house.
Although Brenda van Dam said she barely knew Westerfield, Feldman has suggested he danced with her at the bar while she was in the midst of drinking and flirting with other people.
Feldman also noted that Danielle and her mother were in Westerfield's house selling Girl Scout cookies several days before the girl disappeared. The attorney suggested that might explain some of the fiber evidence.
Alex Roth
But seriously, Kim. The child was not kept very well..poor little baby looked like a little Raggie Muffin most of the time. Should't be hard to prove she didn't have a bath that night.
sw
Yes, the perp could have, but I would have expected to find more hairs in DW's sink trap (assuming he is the perp) if he had washed her off.
On a happy note we get 2 4-day weekends in a row away from the trial.