There is only one jury that gets to make the call in the David Westerfield trial. Posted on 06/17/2002 8:41:24 AM PDT by FresnoDA
Case playing out before nationwide jury of spectators
By Leslie Wolf Branscomb
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 17, 2002
There is only one jury that gets to make the call in the David Westerfield trial.
Those 12 citizens sit silently in a San Diego courtroom, ordered not to watch or listen to media coverage of the case and reserve judgment until the end.
But there is another jury, outside the courthouse, that numbers in the thousands. Its members watch the trial also, from their living rooms, gyms and doctor's offices, and their commentary on the case runs nonstop on radio talk shows and Internet forums.
And most have already made up their minds about whether the Sabre Springs man kidnapped and killed his 7-year-old neighbor.
Two hours after Westerfield's trial wrapped up for the week Thursday, listeners were still calling Rick Roberts' radio talk show on KFMB-AM 760 to hash out the smallest details of the case.
They dissected the day's testimony regarding Westerfield's cellular-phone use in the days after Danielle van Dam disappeared. They questioned everything, and offered their own theories.
How accurate are cell-phone records? Where were those calls really made from? And on and on.
Early the next morning they were at it again. Different callers, different talk-show host – Ted Leitner – but the same radio station. This time the topic was Westerfield's wallet: Did he have it the day after Danielle vanished?
It's the case people just can't stop analyzing. And it has only just begun.
"I've covered many high-profile cases, but I've got to tell you, this one is different," Roberts said Friday morning while wading through e-mailfrom his listeners about the trial. "If I had 200 phone lines, I couldn't take all the calls."
Though Roberts talks about the case with callers for hours on end, he doesn't think the extraordinary amount of media coverage is what's causing the overwhelming public interest.
"People are just so connected to this story, it is absolutely phenomenal," he said. "Everyone wants to see justice done for Danielle, no matter what."
At the office of Dr. Robert Maywood, an orthopedic surgeon in Kearny Mesa, the television in the waiting room stays tuned to the Westerfield trial.
"The patients automatically turn it there, so we just left it," said office manager Michele Cornelius. "At least when it's on something interesting the patients seem to focus on that and they don't complain about waiting."
People with dogs and cats in tow sit glued to the television at a veterinary hospital in Carmel Mountain Ranch. Usually it's tuned to Animal Planet, but people kept asking for the remote control and changing it to the trial, said an employee whose boss didn't want her to give her name.
"We're not supposed to watch, but we're listening all day," the employee said. "My mom, she can't even function. She only takes a shower during breaks in the trial, and we talk about it all night."
One of two televisions at the Boll Weevil restaurant in Bonita stays tuned to the Westerfield trial, again because customers ask for it.
"Yes, I watch it, too," said manager Bill Von-Gnatensky. "I try to find out the juiciest parts, because it is a soap opera, you know, wife-swapping and all."
It's a rare combination for a crime story: The horror of a girl's slaying, the seamy details of her parents' lifestyle and the speed at which the case has proceeded have all helped keep people riveted.
Some videotape the trial all day so they can watch it at night when they come home from work. Some listen surreptitiously at the office, using headphones plugged into streaming audio of the trial available over the Internet.
And some watch the trial each day from beginning to end, then post their comments on Internet message boards and chat rooms devoted to the case.
On the Internet, people who have no connection to the case discuss people they have never met as if they know them. Defense attorney Steven Feldman becomes "Feldy." Brenda van Dam's friend Barbara Easton, who hasn't even testified, is called "Barb."
Some messages lean toward the bizarre – a few message-board users are convinced Danielle was sacrificed by a satanic cult. Some turn nasty, like the vitriolic exchanges between two writers who claim to be cops, arguing over who has the most expertise in polygraphs.
"It does get emotional on there," said Bryan Resheske, a business consultant from Ventura. Resheske, also known as "Joe Sixpack," has posted more than 900 messages on SignOnSanDiego.com, the Union-Tribune's Web site. He believes Westerfield may be innocent.
"I think everybody wants justice," Resheske said. "But I think people also want to see if they're on the right trail, kind of play detective.
"It's pretty amazing to me that there are all these people out there in these various professions that are great investigators. They may have 100 detectives on this case, but if you have 10,000 people out there watching this closely, they're going to catch things even the investigators don't."
Resheske is among a growing national audience in the case, and the outsiders are just as involved as the locals.
Debbie Taylor of Texas, known as "Grandma" on the Web, believes the forensic evidence proves Westerfield's guilt, and she feels compelled to challenge other online message posters who try to discredit the police.
"I've become very emotionally involved with my love for all children and my fervent wish to help stop sexual abuse, and on the forum it has become my mission of sorts to fight all the propaganda," Taylor said. "So, for the time being, I eat, drink and sleep with Danielle on my mind and my computer turned on."
KGTV/Channel 15, KUSI/Channel 51, KFMB/Channel 8 and Court TV have been broadcasting the trial live. The stations have Web sites that offer streaming video and audio, chat rooms and Internet message boards.
"As soon as Judge (William) Mudd opened the door, we were there," said KGTV Managing Editor J.W. August. The station has never done continuous live coverage of any other trial.
"I was in a retail store the other day, and people were standing around (in the electronics department) watching the trial, just like in the old days when people didn't have televisions," August said. "It's one of these events that seems to have really caught the attention of people here in town."
KFMB/Channel 8 does a half-hour wrap-up of the trial each night, with commentary from a well-known defense attorney. The station's Web site includes juror profiles, jury questionnaires and the search warrants served on Westerfield.
KUSI/Channel 51 has been doing a one-hour review from 9 to 10 p.m. nightly of each day's testimony.
KNSD/Channel 39 is doing unprecedented hourly updates on the trial, and like the others has logged thousands of hits on the station's Web site.
"Our ratings have been very high" during broadcasts of the Westerfield trial, said Marlene Dann, Court TV's senior vice president of daytime programming. "Our anchors (who are covering the trial) are requested to appear on other shows often, and our e-mail and our Web sites are very active.
"Kidnappings and child abductions of any kind, unfortunately, are a national issue."
Websleuths.com is a popular Web site for Westerfield watchers, as is SignOnSanDiego.
Michelle Morgan, a bookkeeper in Florida, posts her ideas on the Internet as "In Maddie's Memory" – a reference to a girl slain in Jacksonville, Fla.
"What has me so drawn to this case is the mystery of it," she said. "By the end of the trial, I hope to have answers to the many questions I have."
Morgan said she had never posted on an Internet message board before, but now has online friends from throughout the United States and Canada.
"I just wonder what we are all going to do when the trial is over," she said.
I am asking ALL VD thread watchers to ping this thread....in support of MizSterious.....
Banned from further postings on FR last week.....
After a weekend to think about the matter (Thanxs Spectre!!) This is what needs to happen....
FresnoDA!!
Superior Court Judge William Mudd, who is presiding over the case of accused child murderer David Westerfield, said he "got discovered" on a recent trip to a pet store.
He told jurors he heard a voice behind him asking, "You're Judge Mudd, aren't you?"
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That's not always a good thing, he said, for someone whose job often includes sentencing convicted criminals to prison.
In this case, Mudd said, it was just someone who wanted to let him know the Padres were winning.
The brief encounter might sound strange to anyone who hasn't been watching the nationally televised proceedings in the Westerfield case.
But those who have been following the case know a few things about Mudd: He's a Padres fan. He's been married for 33 years. And his dog is a retired, rescued Greyhound.
Mudd has been in the media spotlight ---- or, perhaps more accurately, the floodlights ---- since being assigned to preside over the trial of the man accused of kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.
The Westerfield case, entering its third week, has become one of the most widely publicized since the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
Some people have criticized Mudd's lighthearted tone during his morning and afternoon addresses to the jurors. But private attorneys said the judge's talks, often peppered with personal anecdotes, are necessary to help the panel adjust to the stress of each day's proceeding.
Mudd isn't the only one bringing a little levity into the downtown San Diego courtroom.
A different side
Perhaps the best thing to happen to Westerfield this week was Keith Sherman, who testified Wednesday about how he allowed Westerfield to park his motor home on his Poway property for $100 a month.
Sherman, a jolly, round man with a Minnesota accent, could almost pass for Santa Claus if he grew a beard. On the stand, he made Westerfield human.
The first witness to smile at Westerfield, Sherman described his former tenant as a nice man who always dressed well and often wore a baseball cap.
"I've had no reason to distrust him or anything," Sherman said. "He's been very good. The best."
When Sherman was questioned about whether he told police investigators that Westerfield looked "ragged" when he returned from a weekend trip two days after Danielle disappeared, Sherman said he only meant to convey that Westerfield was a bit rumpled.
"I don't think he's ever looked ragged in his entire life," Sherman said. "Look at the man."
Westerfield, a self-employed engineer who has several patents for prosthetic devices, wears the same charcoal-gray suit and light button-down shirt each day.
Even the attorneys had to smile when Sherman reached out to shake Judge Mudd's hand before leaving the witness stand. On his way out of the courtroom, Sherman called out "David" and waited for Westerfield to turn around so he could say goodbye.
Westerfield smiled and waved back, a rare sign of emotion in two weeks of testimony.
Sabre Springs
A parade of witnesses who live in Sabre Springs gave small glimpses into the neighborhood where a blond-haired, green-eyed Danielle once played and Westerfield hosted bring-your-own-meat barbecues by his backyard pool.
The neighborhood is brimming with children and cookie-cutter houses that are so uniform some of its residents had a difficult time getting their bearings while looking at close-up aerial photographs.
Here, there are covenants, codes and restrictions that govern what residents can do with their homes and where they can park their cars.
It's a neighborhood where some people complained about Westerfield violating those rules by parking his motor home on the street for several days at a time. It's also a neighborhood where people signed up on a rotating basis to take the van Dams lunch after Danielle disappeared.
Three of the four women who testified were stay-at-home moms. Several of the men were software engineers. The vast majority of the Sabre Springs residents were married with children.
The van Dam family fits the same profile: Brenda van Dam stayed home with Danielle and her two brothers. Her father, Damon van Dam, is a software engineer.
'Nasty-grams'
Mudd, Westerfield and the attorneys in the case have been receiving mail from the outside world.
Not all of it has been nice.
In one correspondence, a San Diego County employee wrote Judge Mudd to complain. The person apparently was offended when Mudd jokingly told jurors the courtroom clock never was properly set and there was only a 50-50 chance their pens would work because they came from the county.
"I have not intentionally in any way, shape or form, intended to make light of county government," Mudd told the jurors. "However, I do occasionally comment on what the truth is. And the truth is that these buildings and, particularly this one, is 40 years old and has problems.
"So any offense that you may have had as a citizen of our community that somehow I am making light of the county of San Diego, I apologize for that."
Mudd also commended the county when air-conditioning problems were fixed and the clock was fitted with a new battery.
Other communications have been more serious. Westerfield's attorney, Steven Feldman, said he and his client each received at least one letter written in "bright red ink." At minimum, he said, the notes could be categorized as "nasty-grams."
"There's, frankly, a certain outrage at both sides that I've never seen before, at least not at this intensity," Feldman told the judge.
Testimony in the case will resume Monday.
Contact staff writer Kimberly Epler at (760) 739---6644 or kepler@nctimes.
6/16/02
How does the DA get their hands on a guy like this? He must have taken it upon himself to volunteer. How else could they know he was there? So......it is his 15 minutes of fame or sincerely wanting to help? One wonders !!!!!!
http://pub3.ezboard.com/ffreerepublicrefugeeboard5175frm13.showMessage?topicID=2.topic
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