Posted on 08/07/2002 7:08:12 PM PDT by FresnoDA
Actually some of us believe in that silly old saying 'Innocent until proven guilty" and another silly concept of 'reasonable doubt'
But if you had taken the time to follow these threads I am sure you would not have asked your silly question.
I am proud of my relations with the Van Dams...I have had some wonderful memories...at least, those I can remmeber were great... then you have apparently not been following these threads very closely.
There was also no indication of truma, or evidence that she was bound with rope or anything else. Exactly how did he keep that girl so quiet and out of his hair as he traveled around the country side? How did the rape of a 7 year old girl leave so little evidence? He did not bleach or steam clean his motor home as the media loves to report. He didn't even wipe it down.
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| June 7 — Is the sexual lifestyle of Danielle van Dam’s parents relevant in the David Westerfield trial? That’s a question many here are asking—and debating—as this emotional and high-profile murder trial continues in San Diego Superior Court. |
WESTERFIELD, 50, A TWICE-DIVORCED freelance engineer with two grown children who is the neighbor of the van Dams, is charged with kidnapping and killing the 7-year-old daughter of Damon and Brenda van Dam. Police say Danielle’s hair was found in Westerfield’s motor home and her blood was found both in his motor home and on his jacket. But during the opening days of the trial, it is the van Dams who have had to answer difficult questions, including describing and defending the most intimate details of their life together. |
| Westerfield’s attorney, Steven Feldman, relentlessly questioned Damon van Dam on Wednesday and was equally aggressive with Brenda van Dam on Thursday. Feldman is trying to establish that Danielle van Dam could have been abducted by any number of people the couple brought into their home with what Feldman has called “risqué” behavior. Both parents admitted this week in court to having sex with third parties on more than one occasion. Damon van Dam—who cried as he described pictures of Danielle’s bedroom—admitted to initially concealing details about his sex life and marijuana use from police. He said he later disclosed all the facts about his personal life after police stressed the importance of revealing everything that happened the night his daughter disappeared. |
| “Since realizing the magnitude of the situation, I’ve opened my private life up and given every detail possible to try to get my daughter back and now to get justice for her,” van Dam said on the stand. He also admitted having past sexual relationships with at least two of his wife’s friends. He said he had sex with one of the women in October 2000 while his wife and the friend’s husband were present. Brenda van Dam’s two friends and two male acquaintances were at the van Dams’ house the night Danielle disappeared. Van Dam testified he and one of the women briefly kissed and “snuggled” in his bed that night while his wife was downstairs. Earlier that night, he and his wife smoked pot with the two women, he testified. When prosecutor Jeff Dusek asked Damon van Dam why he didn’t initially tell police about his activities with his wife’s friend that night, he said, “It didn’t seem relevant.” But is it? Close followers of the trial disagree on the answer. Rick Roberts, a radio host on San Diego’s KFMB 760 AM, has been focusing on the van Dams’ lifestyle on his show since he first mentioned it back on Feb. 8. “Ever since Danielle disappeared, the van Dams have been saying they are just like everyone else and how this could have happened to anyone, but they are not like everyone else,” says Roberts. “The fact is, the van Dams’ lifestyle increases the opportunity for bad things to happen. If you participate in indiscriminate behavior, then you are different than most people and, yes, that is relevant in this trial. This indiscriminate behavior might in fact create a reasonable doubt in a juror’s mind.” |
| Kerry Steigerwalt, a San Diego defense attorney who is lending his commentary to a San Diego television station that is running gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial, says it’s possible the parents’ lifestyle could in fact raise a reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors. “First, it goes to the issue of credibility,” he says. “The van Dams weren’t truthful about it when police first interviewed them. At a time when it was very critical for them to tell the police everything, they did not. It raises the question, ‘if they were dishonest about their lifestyle and about smoking marijuana, what else are they being dishonest about now?’” Steigerwalt suggests that the defense is trying to make a case that whoever committed this crime had to be aware of the set-up of the home, particularly the upstairs where the bedrooms are. “Whoever did this evidently got in the house without disturbing the dog and without arousing any suspicion,” he told NEWSWEEK. “The defense has already insisted that Westerfield was never in that home. The defense will suggest that whoever the van Dams did bring into their home would know the layout of the house and would know which upstairs room was Danielle’s.” |
snip...That effective procedures are afforded to guarantee against contamination of DNA samples. The planting of evidence ("giving of presents") has been a distinct problem for the criminal justice system in the past. Given the likely devastating power of DNA evidence, it becomes doubly important to ensure the integrity of collection of samples and their transmission, storage, testing, reportage and preservation for the scrutiny of independent experts and, ultimately if need be, by the courts. Contamination or fabrication of evidence by officials is only part of the problem. The planting of false trails by criminals, designed to implicate others as suspects, cannot be ignored
he may be an Aussie - but he makes some good points!
okay - let me know if I need some reynolds wrap....
Barb Easton
Slain girl's father testifies tearfully, fends off lifestyle attack |
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SAN DIEGO — Raw grief mingled with common titillation at the Danielle van Dam murder trial Wednesday as the slain second-grader’s father took the stand against her accused killer. Damon van Dam gave a wrenching account of the 7-year-old’s abduction from the safety of her suburban bedroom, but under a relentless cross-examination by a defense lawyer, he bitterly confirmed rumors that he and his wife engaged in swinging, or wife-swapping. “I have opened my life up — every detail — to try to get my daughter back and now to get justice for her,” a red-faced van Dam said after admitting that he had sexual relations with other women while his wife watched.
Damon van Dam’s grilling Wednesday, the second day of the trial, appeared to be part of a defense strategy to shift the focus away from strong DNA and other physical evidence against Westerfield and toward Danielle’s parents and their lifestyle. It was unclear how well that approach played with jurors. As defense lawyer Steven Feldman got van Dam to acknowledge intimate relationships with two female guests in his home the night Danielle disappeared and that a third man present was his marijuana dealer, few jurors took notes. And as van Dam stammered with the uncomfortable questions, jurors stared at the lawyer instead of the witness. During a sidebar conference between Judge William Mudd and the lawyers, van Dam stared at supporters in the gallery, shook his head and then in full view of the jury, slammed his forehead down on the witness box. The day of testimony that ended in frustration and shame, began in tears. The software engineer choked with emotion as he showed jurors photographs of Danielle’s room, a young girl’s pink and purple dream. Stopping frequently to regain his composure, he pointed out her toy box and shiny white dresser, the "little fluffy hearts" hanging from her ceiling and her snowy canopy bed and lilac sheets. "She was in her bed right here with her dollies," van Dam told the panel, describing the last time he saw his daughter. An alternate juror clutched her notebook to her chest and wiped at her eyes.
Van Dam said that on that Friday night, his wife, Brenda, and two friends, identified as Barbara Easton and Denise Kemal, had scheduled a “girl’s night out” at a local bar. During cross-examination, van Dam said he and Kemal had sex in his bed once, a year before, while Kemal’s husband and Brenda van Dam were present. He acknowledged that he and Easton, an airline stewardess, had intercourse once and sexual relations twice. On those two occasions, he said, Brenda van Dam watched. |
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This by far is the most baffleing part of the whole trial, Feldman was so unprepaired for the big moment.
Maybe he felt Dusek thru a no-hitter in his closeing statements and he needed a knock-out. Anyway he was rattled.
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