POT-SMOKING WITNESS GETS HER JOB BACK

Woman Admitted Using With Danielle's Parents

The flight attendant who was fired after testifying in David Westerfield's
trial that she had smoked marijuana with Danielle van Dam's parents got her
job back this week.

Denise Kemal was reinstated as a flight attendant on Southwest Airlines
after appealing the company's decision to fire her through internal
grievance procedures, a company spokeswoman said yesterday.

Southwest, which has a zero-tolerance drug policy, fired Kemal in June
after she testified in the nationally televised murder trial.

Reached yesterday, Kemal said getting her job back feels great, but
declined to comment further. When she was fired, Kemal said it had ruined
her life.

"I've always wanted to fly," she said.

"She just wants to put this behind her," said Tom McDaniel, president of
Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represented Kemal in the proceedings.

The agreement doesn't provide back pay for Kemal and requires she undergo
regular drug testing. She will return to work immediately.

Westerfield was convicted in August of kidnapping and killing the
7-year-old girl, whose parents last saw her alive Feb. 1. The same jury
recommended he be executed, and his sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 22.

Kemal's marijuana smoking "would have never come out but for what he did,"
said San Diego attorney Spencer Busby, the van Dams' lawyer. He wrote a
letter to Southwest on her behalf.

"She fulfilled her civic duty," he said yesterday. "It would be
inappropriate to penalize her for testifying truthfully."

Kemal took the witness stand June 10, saying she visited the van Dam home
Feb. 1 and spent the evening partying with Brenda van Dam. They became
friends through their husbands, who both worked at Qualcomm, and Kemal
testified they swapped spouses in 2000. Kemal and her husband have since
divorced.

Kemal testified she and her neighbor Barbara Easton accompanied van Dam to
Dad's Cafe & Steakhouse in Poway two Fridays in a row, Jan. 25 and Feb. 1.
Westerfield was also at the bar, and bought them drinks on both occasions.

The women were celebrating Kemal's move to Baltimore, where she had been
transferred for work. She testified she took a few puffs of a marijuana
cigarette both nights.

In a July interview, Kemal said she didn't regularly smoke marijuana and
that she'd passed all random drug tests during her 31/2-year Southwest
employment.

She was a good employee, she said, and the airline regularly received
letters from passengers commending her. Kemal said she often played games
with children on flights and walked up and down the aisle entertaining
fidgety babies.

The company also has a grievance procedure that allowed her to appeal the
decision within 10 days. The company was required to respond within 10 days
of the appeal.

Kemal took her appeal another step, and flew to Houston to present her case
Tuesday to a board composed of two union members and two Southwest
officials. An agreement that allowed her to return to work was reached
before the hearing.