Prosecutors: Westerfield's Rights Weren't Violated (Are taxpayers picking up accused killers tab?)

KSDN San Diego NBC TV ^ | April 12, 2002 | NBC

[FresnoDA]

Prosecutors: Westerfield's Rights Weren't Violated

Documents: Motorhome May Have Transported Victim

 

POSTED: 5:30 p.m. PDT April 11, 2002

UPDATED: 10:14 a.m. PDT April 12, 2002

SAN DIEGO -- A police dog was agitated near a garage and "hit" on something upstairs during a search of David Westerfield's home after Danielle van Dam was reported missing, according to court documents filed Thursday.

FeedRoom
	'Rights Weren't Violated'

Detectives, who also believe Westerfield's motorhome may have been used to transport the victim, said search dogs alerted on a storage area on the exterior of the vehicle, near the main entrance on the passenger side, the documents state.

 

Prosecutors filed their response to a defense motion claiming detectives failed to honor Westerfield's request for an attorney and used improper methods to question him in the days after the 7-year-old's disappearance.

  Westerfield's attorneys argued in a motion filed with Superior Court Judge William Mudd last week that they should be able to review the personnel files of 13 officers involved in the case to see if there was any history of past misconduct.

But prosecutors said Mudd need only review the personnel records of detectives Mike Ott and Mark Keyser for the names and telephone numbers of any witnesses with information relevant to complaints received during the last five years about their credibility, or complaints about the detectives giving suspects their Miranda rights.

Ott and Keyser interviewed Westerfield on Feb. 4, two days after the girl disappeared. They also drove with the defendant on the exact 600-mile route he said he traveled the weekend Danielle van Dam turned up missing. A hearing on the "Pitchess" motion is set for April 18.

Mudd ruled Tuesday that future motions in the Westerfield case will be filed under seal until hearings scheduled for May 6. The judge also ruled there would be no TV coverage of the pretrial hearings in the case. Trial is set to begin May 17.

Other possible pretrial motions might include a defense request to move Westerfield's trial away from San Diego County, and a prosecution motion to limit inquiries into the supposed "swinging" lifestyle of the victim's parents.

Westerfield, 50, lived two doors down from the victim. He is charged with kidnapping, murder, possession of child pornography in connection with the girl's death.

He also faces a special circumstance allegation of murder during a kidnapping, which could lead to the death penalty if he is convicted. Prosecutors will announce later whether they intend to seek life in prison without parole or capital punishment should Westerfield be found guilty.

Brenda and Damon van Dam discovered their daughter missing from her upstairs bed the morning of Feb. 2. Searchers found her partially decomposed body just off an East County road on Feb. 27. In the interim, the case drew nationwide attention.

[RnMomof7]

Thanks for the flag I was looking for you all today:>)

[RnMomof7]

By arguing that the partying parents had indirectly put Danielle in harm's way, Roberts was accused of compounding the family's grief. Critics likened him to someone who blames a rape victim for wearing a short skirt.

Looks like a "get Roberts plan " has been activated...perhaps joint effort by the prosecution and the San Diego Swingers clubs..Look every where but where the fault really lays..Kill the mesenger..

If mom and dad were not so busy getting high and laid it would not have happened.They opened their doors to a group of slime low life wife swappers and drug dealers..So they do not have clean hands no matter who did it!

[RnMomof7]

Actually, I knew that I had heard that name...and his rantings. His style is well, predictable. Sort of like yours. ;-)

Kim he exposed the truth to light ..you may not like it but he did nothing wrong but assure other families, that have some morals ,that their kids were safe..

[RnMomof7]

''These are not the people you see on Jerry Springer. They are middle to upper class,'' said Booth, who notes that they prefer the term ''play couples'' over `swingers.'

Well that matches the words of one of FR swinngers that told us he and the mrs ( I will not say wife here)were Mr and Mrs. America....just a average couple that enjoyed group sex playing ( she is still the best sex he has ever had...could be he will keep going till he finds some one better...:>))..

Does it strike anyone but me that some of these amoral folks are teaching sex ed to your kids??

[Lanza]

Thanks for pointing all that out. I wish I could remember the poster here on one of the early VD threads that mentioned going to a vigil or something for Danielle in the Sabre Springs area because his sister and family lived there. He said little kids were scared to death a stranger was going to come in their home and get them. An officer told him that no one needed to be afraid, and the story would come out (or something to that affect). Fres, do you remember who that was?

[Lanza]

Thanks for the ping about this thread.

[rolling_stone]

Here's one for the children: Child dies, parents allege PD cover-up

The Neaves family contends in its federal lawsuit that Michael and police conspired to alter evidence, falsely report findings and misrepresent results of the investigation.

San Diego police told Michael that his daughter passed the test, indicating she did not kill Scotty. But a videotape of the exam shows she vomited when asked if she had harmed the boy. An independent expert contacted by the Union-Tribune said that in more than 30 years of conducting polygraph tests, he had never seen a subject vomit during a test. He said it made the exam "meaningless." "I don't think you can come to a reliable conclusion if someone vomits during the test," said Paul K. Minor, a Virginia polygraph authority who set up and ran the FBI's polygraph program.

[rolling_stone]

All Aboard

Alleged that SDPD planted porn

[BunnySlippers]

I liked this little guy.

[Jaded]

Good articles. The question would be in this case, what does SDPD have to gain? The taxpayers of the county certainly have a great deal to lose. It all circles back to that two little question...Why and How? And there are so many of those questions. Even the stories that are trickling out are kind of odd. So much of this will be based on emotion and circumstantial evidence. Do you really see all of the truth coming out? Who else is involved? Will the timeline change again? It's enough to make one's brain ache.

[Valpal1]

SCOTUS overturns childporn law

Does this make the porn charge against Westerfield moot?

[Jaded]

Inquiring minds and all that. They will probably keep it because the pictures in question weren't children they were young women of about 18 years of age. On the cusp. If they toss that, the DA can't use it for motive which was questionable anyway or use it for character. Without porn for motive or without knowing how the crime was done and the other allegations circulating it becomes a toss, IMO. Then the civil suits start. That'll be a free for all, in more ways that the VD's or the others could have ever contemplated.

We shall see how it shakes out.

[FresnoDA]

Val/Amore...it might challenge the "porn" evidence if it is morphed...do you think???

[FresnoDA]

Click here for latest DW/VD Thread....updated as of 4-16-2002

DA: Deny Westerfield Access To Police Records: Media Asks For Access To Documents And Trial

[Valpal1]

I think it may affect some of it, because I seem to remember testimony that some of the questionable material may have been "photoshopped", something that was illegal until SCOTUS overturned the statute.

Although I am reading in various places that that particular provision was unchallenged and thus left intact by the decision.

Arguments that photoshopping childrens heads onto adult bodies in sexual portrayals remains illegal because the depictions uses real children's heads/faces/likenesses. I have a feeling that this will be the next challeng of the law

The alledged anime, however, being a fully digital creation of imagination is now legal.

[Amore]

It is true the rape animation would now be legal and thus would not be part of the child porn charge. However, it may still be admissible in the kidnapping/murder prosecution to prove motive, propensity, etc.