Criminal
Jul. 26, 2002
Westerfield's Son Says Porn Is His Dad's
SAN DIEGO - The son of the man accused of murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam testified Wednesday that the pornography that police found in his father's home belonged to his father.
David Neal Westerfield, who goes by the name of Neal, said he discovered computer disks storing thousands of pornographic images hidden on a high bookshelf in his father's home office.
Neal Westerfield also said he found a link to pornography while using his father's computer but did not access the link because his father was "sitting right there."
"I found some on his computer, and I found some on disks in his office," the son testified.
At first, David A. Westerfield smiled at his son as he testified, but the older Westerfield grimaced as his son began to tell about finding the pornography.
Neal Westerfield, testifying as a reluctant witness, told his story to jurors on the day the defense team for David Westerfield completed its case. Prosecutors then began their rebuttal.
David Westerfield is charged with possession of child pornography, and authorities allege that he had a sexual interest in children that led him to kidnap and kill Danielle in February. He also is charged with kidnapping and murder and could face the death penalty if convicted.
The son's testimony also was used to aid the prosecution's depiction of Westerfield's actions as unusual on the weekend that Danielle disappeared from her home, two doors away from Westerfield's home in northern San Diego.
The 50-year-old Westerfield, who is twice divorced, made a meandering, solo trip in his motor home to the ocean and to the desert east of San Diego soon after Danielle vanished the night of Feb. 1.
Neal Westerfield testified that he had looked at pornography on his father's computer and applied for membership in some free pornographic sites. He said he had never viewed child pornography.
The defense earlier attempted during questioning of computer experts to suggest that Neal Westerfield downloaded the pornographic files. But the son denied in Wednesday's testimony that he had downloaded any.
Superior Court Judge William D. Mudd barred photographs or film of the younger Westerfield to preserve the 18-year-old's privacy. The ban applied to the courtroom and the corridor in which it is located.
At the noon break, film crews staked out doors leading from the courthouse, and videographers chased Neal Westerfield through the corridors.
Mudd tongue-lashed the media when court resumed at 1:30 p.m. He said on Court TV, which is broadcasting the trial nationally, that the media's behavior was "absolutely appalling to this court."
The final defense witness was a graphic artist who provides courtroom exhibits. He told of assembling a photo exhibit that shows police personnel in orange jackets at the Westerfield home, presumably to suggest that orange fibers that turned up on Danielle and in Westerfield's motor home came from the police themselves.
Then the prosecution began calling rebuttal witnesses.
Neal Westerfield said under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Jeff B. Dusek that his father told him a week before Danielle vanished from her second-floor bedroom that he was leaving on a trip to the desert over the Super Bowl weekend.
On Feb. 2, the Saturday before Super Bowl Sunday, Danielle's parents learned their daughter had vanished. That same day, Neal Westerfield went with his mother at the older Westerfield's request to make certain the front door was locked, the son testified.
Police blockades were up in the streets as what turned into a massive search for Danielle began, Neal Westerfield testified. He said that, while he was checking the front and rear doors, his mother talked with neighbors and police about the commotion in the neighborhood.
The mother, divorced nine years from the older Westerfield, returned with a missing-child poster that included a photograph of Danielle, and Neal Westerfield said he left the poster in his father's kitchen. Two days later, the San Diego State University freshman returned to the house to spend two weeks with his father. The poster showing Danielle had been placed in the front room, he testified.
The son also testified that his father usually began preparations for trips to the desert or beach the day before departure. Police have described David Westerfield's trip to the coast, desert and back to the coast as a spur-of-the-moment event.
Neal Westerfield also said that he and his father normally took Interstate 8 to the desert, not the winding backcountry route that David Westerfield told police he customarily takes.
Defense attorneys had no questions for Neal Westerfield after he testified for nearly two hours for the prosecution.
Claude Walbert
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