Westerfield Trial Focuses On Porn, Again

SAN DIEGO -- People watching or listening to the David Westerfield trial received a thorough education about Internet pornography from a computer forensics expert.

WESTERFIELD TRIAL Judge William Mudd Issues Death Penalty Sentence Hear Jury's Death Penalty Recommendation Watch The Jury's Verdict Being Read Share Your Thoughts DANIELLE VAN DAM 1994-2002 Watch Danielle Video Montage E-mail: daniellevandam @yahoo.com Send mail to: P.O. Box 501515 San Diego, 92150

Marcus Lawson acknowledged to prosecutors that child pornography may have been found on the defendant's home computers.

The prosecution believes child pornography may help to show a motive for Westerfield's alleged kidnapping and killing of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam five months ago. Westerfield is also charged with misdemeanor possession of the child pornography.

However, the defense is trying to show the defendant may not have been responsible for the child pornography.

The defense also raised the possibility that the individuals shown in the pornography may not have been children, but rather actors trying to appear younger than they were.

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Summary Of Day 16

Under questioning by the prosecution Wednesday, Lawson acknowledged the assumed presence of child pornography on Westerfield's home computers. Lawson said he declined to take computer disks to his Spokane office from San Diego because of fears the disks may contain child pornography.

Lawson, president of Global CompuSearch, said he doesn't carry any computer media which is alleged to contain child pornography unless it's accompanied by a federal court order.

Prosecutors last week obtained police testimony regarding child pornography found on computers in the defendant's home, and today's testimony by Lawson again confirmed the existence of child pornography at the home of the 50-year-old Westerfield.

But defense attorney Steven Feldman argued that individuals on the apparent pornography may be older than they appear, and thus the photos and movies may not have been of children.

"They might look young, or they might look old. Is it your understanding these people (depicted in the pornography) are paid?" Feldman asked Lawson, who replied, "Yes."

Feldman then asked Lawson, "So they are actors and actresses, right?"

Lawson again answered, "Yes."

"Whether it's in a video that's depicting a rape scene or a video depicting straight sexual intercourse?"

Lawson answered, "That's correct."

"So merely because a video looks a particular way, doesn't mean what it's depicting is actually occurring, that right?"

"Correct."

Last week, Deputy District Attorney George "Woody" Clarke showed images and movies he claims were found on zip disks and a compact disc, which he called "loose media," from the office of Westerfield's Sabre Springs home.

In cross-examination, Clarke asked Lawson, "You didn't take the loose media to Washington because you were afraid you would be committing a crime by doing so?"

"That's right," Lawson answered.

"Do you recall one zip disk having stills of young children," Clarke asked.

"Yes."

Lawson admitted that he did not include the information on the nude youngsters in his final report.

Clarke also got Lawson to concede that he did not notice the same prefix on pornographic files and the defendant's business files or the electronic label on the compact disc which contained part of his business name.

In an apparent effort to show the defendant may not be responsible for the pornography, Feldman got Lawson to tell the court that computer pornography was found on a computer in Westerfield's son's bedroom and associated with the young man's e-mail accounts.

Feldman asked Lawson if surfing pornographic sites was a typical activity for 15-year-olds, drawing an objection from Clarke.

However, Superior Court Judge William Mudd drew one of the biggest laughs of the day when he over-ruled the objection.

"Any parent could answer that question," Mudd said.

Lawson testified that he found two photographs of naked women and "anime" computer animations on the hard drive of a Gateway computer in an upstairs bedroom used by the 18-year-old son, David Neal Westerfield.

The defendant's middle initial is "A."

Lawson told jurors that he examined copies of hard drives, zip disks and compact discs made by police and took numerous screen captures -- essentially photographs of what came up on the computer monitor at a given time.

Feldman asked Lawson if there was a theme to the animations.

"A considerable number of the screen prints showed bondage -- where women were tied in ropes," Lawson said.

A screen print of an e-mail to a DNWest@hotmail.com, as quoted by Lawson, said: "Thanks for joining anime.com."

Lawson also confirmed the existence of "screen prints" the defense entered into evidence last week showing that a computer in the office of Westerfield's house was used to access pornography on Feb. 4 at 4:47 p.m., at a time when the defendant was busy with detectives.

Feldman mentioned last week's suggestion that the clock on the computer may have been doctored, thus throwing into question the defense's chronology at the time.

"Did you see any evidence that that happened on any of the computers you examined?" Feldman asked.

"No, I did not," Lawson answered. He said there's usually signs when a clock has been tampered with, such as files being accessed before they were created. Nothing like that was apparent on Westerfield's computers, he said.

On cross-examination, Lawson told Clarke that his "for-profit" business assisted people charged with crimes.

The witness also admitted that he did not listen to the audio portion of sexually explicit movies that were found on the computer hard drives.

Lawson told Clarke that some of the pornographic files in question were created 3½ years ago.

Lawson also said that he had no evidence that anyone "clicked on" certain pornographic Web sites that he examined on Westerfield's computers.

Tuesday, San Diego police detective Johnny Keene testified that he brought Westerfield from his Sabre Springs home that Monday around 3:40 p.m. and took him to the Northeastern sub-station in Rancho Penasquitos. The defendant remained there until about 11:30 p.m.