BURGLAR MAY TESTIFY vs. LACI HUBBY

The NY Post ^ | Jan 6 2004 | HOWARD BREUER

[runningbear]

BURGLAR MAY TESTIFY vs LACI HUBBY

BURGLAR MAY TESTIFY vs. LACI HUBBY

By HOWARD BREUER

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January 6, 2004 -- MODESTO, Calif. - A convicted burglar who targeted neighbors of Scott and Laci Peterson around the time Laci disappeared may testify at Scott's murder trial to try to refute testimony from a potentially key defense witness.

Prosecutors filed documents yesterday seeking to allow Steven Wayne Todd, 37, to testify in the sensational case. Last February, Todd was sentenced to more than eight years for burglaries in December 2002.

Prosecutors may try to use Todd to undermine the defense's assertions that detectives zeroed in on Scott Peterson as a suspect early in the case, effectively rejecting other leads that could have led to Laci's true killer.

Possible defense witness Diane Jackson told police she was driving home at 11:40 a.m. Dec. 24. - two hours after Scott says he left Laci to go on a fishing trip - when she spotted something suspicious.

She said she saw three men, presumably Todd and accomplices, standing near a tan van across the street from the Petersons' home, making them potential suspects in the case.

Police insist that Jackson was wrong about the date and that the burglaries actually occurred Dec. 26, two days after Laci vanished.

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Superior Court, Stanislaus County
January 5, 2004

Declaration and Order for Production of Inmate/Witness from Deuel Vocational Institute

Deuel Vocational Institute

Superior Court, Stanislaus County January 2, 2004

Opposition to Motion for Change of Venue; Declaration of Dr. Ebbe Ebbesen, Mark Smith, Caitriona Goss; Points and Authorities in Opposition to Change of Venue

Change of Venue

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Conflicting Polls to Be Presented in Peterson Change of Venue Hearing

Conflicting Polls to Be Presented in Peterson Change of Venue Hearing

A new poll contradicts an earlier finding that Stanislaus County residents weren't unduly influenced by media reports of the Laci Peterson case.

According to a report in The Modesto Bee, a survey authorized by defense attorneys found that citizens of Stanislaus County are more likely to have formed conclusions about the guilt or innocence of Scott Peterson than Bay Area and Southern California residents.

The survey was conducted by Stephen Schoenthaler, a criminal justice professor at California State University, Stanislaus. It questioned 1,175 prospective jurors in ten California counties about their attitudes on the case.

The poll found a wide disparity in results from Laci Peterson's home county and those elsewhere in California. The survey results indicate that nearly 70 percent of Stanislaus residents have formed a strong opinion in the case, compared to less than 50 percent of those living in the Bay Area and Southern California.

The defense is expected to use the results from the latest poll in a change of venue hearing scheduled for January 8.

On Friday, prosecutors with the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office filed a motion to keep the trial in Modesto. Based on the results of a survey conducted by a U.C. .......

Jacko Defense: He Wasn't There

Jacko Defense: He Wasn't There

What kind of defense is Mark Geragos putting together for Michael Jackson? How about: absentee molester?

The word is coming down that Geragos will use the specific dates mentioned in the charges filed against Jackson to exonerate the singer. Those dates — Feb. 7 to March 10, 2003 — will work in Jackson's favor, I am told.

The defense will reconstruct a timeline of Jackson's travels, primarily to Miami, to show that he was rarely in town or at Neverland when the D.A.'s office says he allegedly molested a 13-year-old boy suffering from cancer.

What is known already is that Jackson was in Miami on Jan. 16 last year for the funeral of Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb. Further, according to sources, he was also there on Feb. 6, the night ABC aired the Martin Bashir documentary "Living with Michael Jackson." He was then a guest of Miami lawyer Alvin Malnik.

The defense, I am told, will sketch out Jackson's trips through the six weeks in the police complaint, showing that Jackson was either in Miami or away and didn't have much access to the boy or his family.

Prosecutors will counter that the boy made a trip to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., during that time, and that Jackson saw him there. But even if that turns out to be true, all nine charges against Jackson specify that they took place in Santa Barbara County, Calif., and not anywhere else.

One source close to Jackson suggested to me that possibly he'd been in the Miami recording studio The Hit Factory in early February. But a Hit Factory source went through the facility's 2003 schedule book and concluded for me that Jackson .....

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Books

Laci : Inside the Laci Peterson Murder

and

The Murder of Laci Peterson: The Inside Story of What Really Happened

[Devil_Anse]

Geragos has always had that effect on me. I have despised him since I first saw and heard him--back when the Clinton mess was being discussed nightly, and I would see him blabber on, talking over others, on cable TV.

[Devil_Anse]

Thanks for the articles, RB!!

"[Scott's 10:08 cellphone call] could have come from anywhere within a 1 1/2 mile radius that encompasses the Peterson home."

The call was still originated closer to the home than to the warehouse. Okay, so suppose the call originated 1 1/2 miles away from the home. How long would it take him to drive that on a non-work (for most people) day? About 3 minutes, if he was going at the residential-area speed of 30 mph.

[Devil_Anse]

He doesn't just want the venue changed--he also wants to dictate WHERE the venue is changed to?

Oh, yeah. That's really fair. And what law does he cite, I wonder, saying the defense gets to pick which county their case is heard in? ("Um... I think I'll take L.A. County... there're lots more liberals there, and of course liberals are more sympathetic to murderers...")

[runningbear]

That story lit up some errie things on Scott's frantic moments of that day. And able to track another call, via Livermore! Wow, big brother is really out there....lol.. But, from that story, oooooo the timeline is sooooo narrowed down. Geragos, unless he is a magician, will have a hard time convincing his total innocence.

[Devil_Anse]

BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!

"in a case of massive publicity Los Angeles County will necessarily always be the venue of choice since the adversities of publicity are offset by a trial being conducted in a populous metropolitan area."

Are we QUITE SURE that Matt Dalton is not working with Scott's defense any more? This argument is worthy of his wise legal mind!

Translation: "I don't much like the people up here in this backward Stanislaus County; they're too much like those yokels out there in flyover country; they still talk about stuff like right and wrong--talk about behind the times! Some of them have the nerve not to be impressed by my expensive suits and my appearance of being a rich celebrity. And besides, L.A. County will have lots more blacks in the venire, and I'm so smart, you see, I'm so mentally superior to THEM, why, I'll be able to sell them any old bullcrap I want, see..."

[Jackie-O]

We were talking about this time-line yesterday. So if Snott were 3 minutes away from the home that would be 10:11 with the dog being found seven minutes later...easier to believe that Snott let that dog loose from the car along the way than to believe that Laci did all of the things he claims she did in that 7 minute window.
This time-line is going to be big...IMO

[Devil_Anse]

Yeah! Will he say, "I went to my warehouse after I left the house at 9:30, and I had left my warehouse and was at that spot (somewhere w/in 1 1/2 miles from his house), heading out of town to go fishing"? I wonder if his route from warehouse to Berkeley Marina would have plausibly led him into that 1 1/2 mile radius of his house?

Did you see the rest of that 2nd article RB posted today? Apparently Amy got the call from Vella Farms (basket had not been picked up) at 3:45, and promptly called Scott at home and on his cell. (One of his many cellphones?) Scott must have seen the cell call coming in, and that prompted him to call home, as though he were trying to get Laci to get the basket. Amy can congratulate herself, if it was her call that prompted him to make the cell call that placed him in Livermore at that time. 53 minutes in which to not only drive 51 miles, but also get to the warehouse, check e-mail, unhook boat, and get home... ?

I think you're right, it was while he was driving, making that 10:08 call, that he also took care of the chore of letting the dog loose.

[pinz-n-needlez]

Good catch! I never noticed that little problem with the drive home.

Pinz

[Velveeta]

Fascinating insight into the mind/tactics of Geragos.

http://www.pressupdate.info/pdfs/peterson/010604/reply_to_DA_opposition_010604.pdf

[Devil_Anse]

Thanks--I never noticed it either, till I read this article! But the article (the part that isn't excerpted) makes it quite clear!

[Devil_Anse]

Oh, I love this. He says that while national coverage of the case is extensive, it is small in comparison to coverage of it in Stanislaus County. (Tell that to Tijeras Slim and Constitution Day!)

Er... what event ISN'T covered more widely in the location where it happened, than in other places?

And then he tries to take an end run around the Witherspoon decision (concerning prosecutors' being able to question jurors to determine if they have political or other personal opposition to death penalty). He says in essence that there are more people in favor of the death penalty in Stanislaus, than in L.A., Alameda, or Santa Clara counties. Oh, boo hoo! It just so happens that the death penalty for certain types of murder is LEGAL in California. So, he objects that there are too many people in Stanislaus County who are willing to follow the law as it stands??

[Jackie-O]

yeah! Will he say....

No he won't say. He will NEVER take the stand to try to twist the story to his advantage...and he didn't "say" when he was interviewed, so I think his story is pretty much locked in to the time-line the prosecution will use against him.

[Velveeta]

LOL. Figures you went right to analyzing the "legal jargon".

I was picking out the fun stuff like: The hottest selling T-shirt in Modesto bears the saying...

"Modesto, a KILLER place to live"

[Jackie-O]

HA! Me too!

[Devil_Anse]

Oh, brother. He cites statements by CA Attorney General Lockyer, and by Gray Davis, as reasons that the publicity in Stanislaus County is overwhelming? And how, exactly, do these two statewide figures' statements indicate too much publicity in Stanislaus County?

He complains that in the state's Ebbeson survey (done to determine whether venue should be changed), the interviewer told the respondents that the D.A.'s office was the one commissioning the survey. GUARANTEED: if the respondents had NOT been told this, he would be complaining that the interviewer was "misleading" the respondents by not telling them who was really behind the survey.

[Devil_Anse]

Yes, and I have a feeling that he's just made that T-shirt seller a lot richer! (No doubt Geragos' minions will tell their investment managers to try to get a piece of that action.)

[pinz-n-needlez]

There are conflicts with when he said he got home, and when his neighbor drove by and didn't see his car, isn't there?

And he had very little time to arrive home, with her car in the driveway, not call out to her, do laundry, eat pizza (at one point, he said he took a piece into the shower - guess he noticed the timeline too late. lol), worry about the cat drinking soap, find the phone books to look up hospital numbers, and work up a panic to call Sharon.

Wonder what he was really doing....

And when DID he read that fax?

Pinz

[Devil_Anse]

Yes--I saw Roy Black on TV the other night, saying something like, "If you know you're gonna lose, go ahead and put the defendant on, what have you got to lose?"

Scott's weenie-sounding voice alone would be enough to flush his chance of a not guilty verdict!

[Devil_Anse]

That's right, I think it was that woman across the street, Amy Krigbaum, who said she left at 5:05 and Scott's truck wasn't in the driveway at that time. Guess it's time for the defense to attack HER--but they'd better tread lightly!

When did he read that fax? When did he move the fax from the machine onto his desk? Bet he wishes he'd replaced it in the machine tray after reading it--then no one would know whether he'd read it or not.

[Velveeta]

My Momma calls that talking out of both sides of your mouth. The tone of Gregorious' motions are so biting and nasty that they seem almost pathetic to me. Shades of the defense strategy = attack and slam.