Plea deal 'minutes away' when body found

Minutes before Danielle van Dam's remains were found Feb. 27, David Westerfield's lawyers were brokering a deal with prosecutors:

He would tell police where he dumped the 7-year-old girl's body; they would not seek the death penalty.

Law enforcement sources told The San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday defense lawyers Steven Feldman and Robert Boyce were negotiating for a life sentence for the 50-year-old design engineer, a neighbor of the van Dams in Sabre Springs.

The deal they were discussing would have allowed Westerfield to plead guilty to murder and be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, said the officials, who spoke on condition they not be identified.

Prosecutors were seriously considering the bargain when Danielle's body was discovered off Dehesa Road that afternoon, nearly four weeks after she disappeared from her bedroom.

It was aborted, but details were confirmed yesterday soon after a San Diego Superior Court jury recommended the death penalty for Westerfield.

Feldman and Boyce were at the downtown San Diego jail discussing the final arrangements with Westerfield when volunteer searchers found Danielle's remains beneath trees along Dehesa Road east of El Cajon.

When the lawyers left to meet with prosecutors, they noticed members of the news media gathering in the street and asked what was happening.

After being told a body had been found, they went directly to the nearby Hall of Justice and met with prosecutors. The defense lawyers were handed a copy of a Thomas Guide map of the Dehesa area on which a circle had been drawn indicating the location of the body.

Feldman and Boyce took the map back to Westerfield and later telephoned to say they no longer "had anything to discuss regarding a plea bargain."

Danielle was reported missing from her home the morning of Feb. 2, and Westerfield, who lived two doors away, quickly became the primary suspect. He was watched closely by police for weeks as authorities and volunteers searched from the Sabre Springs neighborhood to the Imperial County desert.

After DNA results linked Westerfield to the crime, he was arrested Feb. 22 and charged with kidnapping and burglary.

Three days later, even though Danielle's body had not been found, District Attorney Paul Pfingst announced murder and kidnapping charges would be filed that could carry the death penalty.

Many law enforcement officials feared Danielle's body might never be found. Then, on Feb. 27, volunteer searchers combing the Dehesa area, far from where police had focused, found Danielle's badly decomposed remains.

At that point, the official sources said yesterday, any opportunity Westerfield and his lawyers had to win a plea bargain evaporated.

None. Zip. They are nullities until and unless they can confront their own gross failings toward their child.

And what would their failings be, O' "Ozzie and Harriet one"?

They should not be treated unkindly or shunned.

We half agree here. No,they shouldn't be treated unkindly,but there is nothing wrong with people shunning them because they don't approve of their lifestyle. You don't HAVE to approve of anybody's lifestyle to have sympathy for them when they lose a child.

Heedless self-indulgence was and is their core problem. Why encourage it?

Unlike the self-indulgence displayed every day by cops who use their badge and the power of their office to dominate and abuse their fellow citizens,right. OOOPS! Sorry! I forgot. They aren't fellow citizens,are they? They are "civilians",right? AND,"It's for their own good". Gotcha.

Their selfish, self-indulgent, heedless, sordid lifestyle was destroying the little girl psychically, emotionally, and spiritually before Westerfield kidpapped, abused, and murdered her.

' Oh,HorseHillary! She was a little girl,and she knew no more about her parents sex lives than you knew or know about the sex lives of YOUR parents.

Only hedonist atomists (and there are many who infest FR) would deny that. Only hedonist atomists believe each person's behavior choices are hermetically sealed off from the rest of civilization, that they can be as "nasty as they wanna be," and still live in a secure, clean, and pleasant society.

I see. We would all be much better off if we kept our mouths shut,and just followed orders. Think maybe you could use your influence as a overseer to get us some of those nifty little Mao jackets?

Society is secure and pleasant only to the extent that there is a majority of decent and self-disciplined people who work hard to keep it that way.

I find the fascism of you and your "let's kick their doors in,and kill them if they resist! After all,they are lawbreakers,or we wouldn't be kicking their doors in and killing them,right" pals a LOT more repulsive than anything the Van Dams have done.

The filth dwellers freeload off the efforts of the moral and self-disciplined.

Oh,yeah.No mental and emotional problems on display here! Maybe we could send them off to labor camps to teach them a little self-disclipline,right?

I ache for Danielle when I think of the many times she must have been lying in her bed, acutely aware of what mom and dad and various strangers were doing just scant feet away.

Having a "Oprah moment" there,are you? One thing is for sure,there is nothing wrong with your imagination. I'm betting you can (and DO) picture it in your head,in full color and in stereo sound.

It sickens me that her parents would be so surpassingly callous and heedless.

You DO know your own parents had sex,right?

THANKS TO REDLIPSTICK for finding this article:

http://www.760kfmb.com/personalities/rick_roberts/index.php
(09-17-2002) -

Barbara Easton: Mystery Woman
by David Gotfredson, LOCAL 8 News

"Forward." "Sexually aggressive." "Pretty loaded." "Intoxicated." "Toasted." "Nice." "Touchy-feely." "Grabby." "Really loose with the guys." "Kind of cute." "Fun chick."

These are just a few of the descriptions of Barbara Easton made in open court during the trial of convicted murderer David Westerfield.

Last month, a jury found Westerfield guilty of killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam in early February, and dumping her body off Dehesa Road in the East County.

Barbara Easton never took the witness stand during Westerfield's trial, even though she was one of four party guests who returned to the van Dam home on the night little Danielle disappeared from her bedroom.

Easton had been out partying with Danielle's mother, Brenda van Dam, and another friend, Denise Kemal, at Dad's Café and Steakhouse in Poway on the evening of February 1, 2002. The women ran into David Westerfield as they drank and danced, and eventually returned to the van Dams' Sabre Springs home with two other male friends.

As it turned out, Easton would be the only member of that party who would not be called as a witness in the murder trial.

To date, Easton has not spoken publicly about the events of the night Danielle went missing.

We caught up with Easton in her Clairemont office where she works as a loan consultant with a mortgage brokerage firm. She was listening to coverage of the Westerfield trial on the radio at the time. The verdict in the guilt phase of the trial had been announced just two hours earlier. Easton was still smiling.

"When I heard the verdict, I jumped for joy," Easton said. "Justice has been served."

Tall and slender, Easton, 46, is easy to talk to. She is guarded about the details of the van Dam murder case, especially when television news crews come knocking at her door. She would not speak on camera.

Since Danielle's death, Easton says reporters and tabloid news organizations have relentlessly pursued her for an interview.

"I've been offered $20,000 from the National Enquirer. And, I've been talking to Phil Donahue's producer," she told us.

Despite the monetary offers, Easton says she has no plans to sign any lucrative book deals or speak to the tabloid press.

"I wouldn't want to profit off the death of a beautiful little girl," she said.

Easton had been under subpoena by both the prosecution and the defense as a potential witness in the case. So, why was she never called to testify?

"I've been doing a lot of praying," Easton joked.

In fact, Easton believes she was never called to the stand because of her attitude toward investigators working the case. Easton apparently took issue with some of the questions she fielded about her personal life.

"I gave the police a statement. I was cooperative but I kind of copped an attitude with the officer. I got in the guy's face," she said.

When an investigator from defense attorney Steven Feldman's office came calling, Easton said she did not reply.

"I never returned her phone calls. That's why the defense never called me to the stand," Easton said.

Still, Easton claims she has gone out of her way to do everything asked of her by law enforcement.

"I've taken three lie detector tests and had my fingerprints taken up to my elbows," she said.

As it turned out, prosecutor Jeff Dusek did not need Easton to take the stand to prove his case.

"We didn't call her for the same reason the defense didn't call her. There was nothing to be gained from her that we didn't already have," Dusek said shortly after the jury recommended a death sentence for Westerfield.

Easton is painfully aware of the fact that the other Dad's Café partygoers had to testify under oath. Soon after Easton's former neighbor Denise Kemal testified that she had smoked marijuana in the van Dam's garage, Kemal was fired from her job as a flight attendant.

"That was totally unfair," Easton said. "Denise worked really hard to get that job because of her size. They didn't want to hire her because she was too short."

Easton has supported Brenda van Dam and her husband Damon from the beginning.

"The van Dams are the victims here. Too bad David Westerfield didn't have to take the stand," Easton said in a telephone interview shortly after the preliminary hearing.

Easton follows live coverage of the Westerfield trial on KFMB/AM 760, and listens to outspoken radio talk show host Rick Roberts on the same station.

"At first, I didn't like (Rick Roberts) and some of his opinions about the lifestyle issue. But then I started listening to him more and more," she said.

Barbara Easton is divorced with no children, according to court records. She and Denise Kemal were next-door neighbors before Kemal left her husband and moved out of state.

Denise Kemal filed for divorce on January 31, 2002, one day before the "girls' night out" party at Dad's.

Andy Kemal, Denise's ex-husband, still lives next door to Easton in the same Tierrasanta complex. He and Damon van Dam met at several years ago at Qualcomm, where they both worked.

Damon van Dam testified he had sexual intercourse on at least one occasion with both Denise Kemal and Barbara Easton. One of those occasions was Halloween 2000, when Damon van Dam and Andy Kemal swapped wives, according to court testimony.

Easton would not comment on the lifestyle of the van Dams, except to dispel the rumors that Brenda van Dam may have had some sort of relationship with Westerfield prior to the kidnapping.

"Scout's honor," Easton said. "There was nothing going on between them."

Of her own behavior that night at Dad's --one patron, Yvette Wetli, testified that Easton tried to reach down Wetli's blouse to retrieve an ice cube -- Easton seemed unabashed.

"I've got nothing to be ashamed of. I was dirty dancing. Big deal. I'm an adult," Easton said.

Asked whether she would ever return to Dad's café, Easton said she has not been back since the night Danielle disappeared. She doubts she will ever return.

"Right now, people don't recognize me," she said. "I'm just laying low, going to work everyday and doing my job. I've gone to great lengths to keep my face off of television and I plan to keep it that way."

David Gotfredson: (858) 459-7555; mailto:dgotfredson@kfmb.com

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