Posted on 01/08/2003 9:24:19 AM PST by TomB
In a videotaped interrogation with San Diego police detectives four days after Danielle van Dam was kidnapped, an exhausted David Westerfield says "my life is over," seemingly coming close to an admission that he murdered his 7-year-old neighbor.
"As far as I'm concerned my life is over, the life that I had, the life that I was living is over," Westerfield says in the interrogation conducted the evening of Feb. 5, 2002. Danielle was last seen the night of Feb. 1.
"But you can't blame anyone but yourself, Dave," answers one of the police detectives.
"And I have no problem with that," Westerfield replies.
In the tapes released Tuesday, Westerfield admits "unusual" sexual encounters with his wife, denies anything improper about his alleged use of binoculars to watch neighbors and says the child pornography found on his computer was simply something he downloaded along with a lot of other pornographic images and that he had no sexual interest in children.
Superior Court Judge William Mudd agreed Monday to unseal the videotape along with hundreds of pages of transcripts, documents and recordings in the Westerfield case, as well as transcripts of police interrogations and court hearings conducted in secret.
Some of the material – audiotape and videotape of Westerfield being interrogated during the early stages of the investigation – was released Tuesday afternoon.
The remainder of the material, which ranges from transcripts of closed-door court hearings to motions regarding potential evidence, will be released Monday, Mudd ruled.
The ruling Monday came three days after Mudd sentenced the former design engineer to death for kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, his neighbor in Sabre Springs.
Monday's court hearing came in response to a request by The San Diego Union-Tribune, which has been seeking access to the information for months. The San Diego-based 4th District Court of Appeal has ruled that Mudd must release the information.
The San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists made a donation to the legal costs.
Westerfield, who attended Monday's hearing, is scheduled to be moved within days to death row at San Quentin State Prison outside San Francisco.
During earlier court appearances, Westerfield was always dressed in civilian attire, but he appeared in court Monday in a green jail jumpsuit. He sat in a holding area so he couldn't be filmed by a television camera.
Not exactly.
He tried to make it sound like that until they asked for a name. Then he came up with "some black guy" knocking on doors offering to wash windows.
Uh huh. Sure.
OMG!!! Where did Woody Clarke say this? In the tapes released?
Dream on!
I don't have Court TV ...
Market is closed (down 145) and I'm about ready to hop on the freeway. I'll check out the radio ... I think I might be able to get Rick Roberts on the Santa Monica Freeway. I'll be relying on your reports as to what's on TV re this. :)
now, remember that all these tapes come after 48 hours of interrogation by the police...no lawyer..not once...
according to westie's brother in law...westie was told by police that "we will get you no matter what"...
yes, there was blood on the jacket...too small for anything for the defense to test..
the motor home was open a lot...
my beef with this case is this.....if indeed the vd's were swingers...and if indeed they used pot...and if indeed they had many friends on the police force...and if indeed some of their friends were into the same things that the vd's were into....then I can see a rail road for sure...
sorry....when the cops act like nazi's it leaves us all wondering about things like this...
betting odds for me are something like 75% guilty....but that 25% will make me think about this case forever.....
the other thing that really sticks out in this case is the massive hate aimed at westerfied....orchestrated by the vd's and the police and the media.....I just think there are alterior motives in this case...I don't know if its a coverup or an election ploy or has to do with a big lifetime movie of the week deal....but this has been hyped beyond comprehension...
meanwhile, a whole family was murdered presumably by their father up in Oregon and nobody says a thing...its basically a non story..
And how does this hate you perceive manifest itself? By one declaring they think the man is guilty?
BTW, you are incorrect about virtually every "fact" you misrepresent here.
During the interrogation, Westerfield did everything but admit, and sign a confession to the murder.
This is inordinately clear.
John Neal supports DW even knowing that dw's fingers were in his daughter's mouth while she was suppose to be asleep. IIIICK
As I understand it, (please correct me if I'm wrong) the defense was there during the testing of the blood. If they could find fault in the testing , they would have.
On the other hand, like a case you mentioned..that's awful. Do you have a link? I just heard a day or two ago, about more than 5 cops being investigated for planting guns on defendants they shot or murdered... I don't know if it's been posted on FR or not.
Just because we believe in the evidence against DW, doesn't mean we think all LE is perfect. For example.. I think as soon as DW requested an atty, he should have been given the phone within minutes at the minimum. I think certain procedures could have been done better. As farr as nazi tactics go.. I don't know what the limits interrorgation specialists have, but I would venture to guess that the boundaries are crossed often. No one can defend that... and when the boundaries are crossed, they deserve a consequence..no doubt.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.