Laci
Posted on 10/31/2003 5:31:29 AM PST by runningbear
Laci
SCOTT: I WEEP IN JAIL
By HOWARD BREUER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 31, 2003 -- MODESTO, Calif. - Jail is a bummer to Scott Peterson, who says in letters to a pal that he's cried in his bunk over the deaths of the wife and son he allegedly killed.
"I am finding it so difficult to grieve for them here," he wrote in letters revealed by a local TV station.
"At night, I have my head buried in a blanket. I don't want the other inmates to see the tears."
Peterson's letters to a friend - written in pencil on a yellow legal pad - were reported by KTVU, a Fox affiliate in Oakland.
The suspect, held without bail in a solitary cell in the Stanislaus County Jail, said his grieving was especially difficult in the early hours of May 4, which would have been Laci's 28th birthday.
"I woke up early today to a crashing cell door. I figured it must be after midnight and, therefore, Laci's birthday," he wrote.
"I lay in this bunk dreaming about her, being able to hold her and Connor [his unborn son]. As the morning went on, all I could do was lay here in tears."
The food stinks, Peterson said. But he looks forward to his daily shower.
"You get to move around a room that is 8 feet by 20 feet without chains on," he wrote. "I try to spend as much time there as possible."
Word of Peterson's letters came as his lawyers battled in court yesterday to keep some DNA evidence out of his trial on grounds it was unreliable and may have been tampered with by cops.
The evidence - a strand of hair found in Peterson's boat, may prove the key piece of evidence that shows Laci Peterson, who was pregnant, was killed in the boat and dumped into San Francisco Bay.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos said the FBI should have matched the hair with a bone from Laci Peterson's body. But an FBI criminologist said that because the hair matches a DNA sample from Laci's mom, more tests aren't needed.
Yesterday was the second day of a hearing to determine if there's enough ..............
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peterson Trial Briefs
Reporters pounce when someone such as attorney Gloria Allred, left in purple, talks about the case during a break. AL GOLUB/THE BEE
Last Updated: October 30, 2003, 07:03:09 AM PST
DAY 1 SUMMARY
FBI DNA expert Candace Fisher testified about mitochondrial DNA testing; prosecutors are seeking to have it allowed as evidence.
Prosecutors indicated that they intend to call to the stand Laci Peterson's sister, Amy Rocha, and Scott and Laci Petersons' house cleaner.
Laci Peterson's brother, Brent Rocha, apparently won't be called to testify despite family members having said they were all tabbed as potential witnesses. Brent Rocha attended the entire proceeding Wednesday.
Judge Al Girolami ruled that Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred, who represents Peterson's former girlfriend, Amber Frey, can remain in the courtroom as other witnesses testify.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos said he intends to call a DNA expert from Shields State University in New York.
UPCOMING
FBI DNA expert Candace Fisher is expected to take the stand again today for continued cross-examination.
The DNA expert from Shields State University is expected to testify Monday, defense attorney Mark Geragos said.
IN COURT
Laci Peterson's family: Sharon Rocha (mother), Ron Grantski (stepfather), Dennis Rocha (father), Brent Rocha (brother), Amy Rocha (sister).
Scott Peterson's family: Jackie Peterson (mother), Lee Peterson (father), Susan Caudillo (sister), Joe Peterson (brother), Janey Peterson (sister-in-law).
Others: Gloria Allred, attorney for witness Amber Frey; Greta Van Susteren, Fox News TV personality
SEEN AND HEARD
A cell phone or electronic data assistant clearly on vibrate went off at least three times in the media section during the morning session. A sheriff's deputy standing in the back of the courtroom told the bailiff he thought it was Fox News TV personality Greta Van Susteren's phone.
The judge has forbidden any broadcasts from the courtroom, and bailiffs repeatedly instructed attendees to turn off their cell phones.
During testimony by FBI DNA expert Candace Fisher, bailiffs handed a note each to Scott Peterson's parents, Lee and Jackie, on separate occasions.
The couple sat with other family members in the front row behind the defense table. All Scott Peterson's family members appeared to wear pins in the shape of a yellow ribbon overlaid with blue.
Pale yellow and blue ribbons were a near .........
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
City itself not caught in media wonderland
City itself not caught in media wonderland
Few members of the public lined up early Wednesday to get a seat in court on the first day of Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing. BART AH YOU/THE BEE
By JEFF JARDINE BEE LOCAL COLUMNIST
Last Updated: October 30, 2003, 09:53:49 AM PST
In the morning shadows of the Stanislaus County Courthouse, the rose garden provided great cover. Eldon Day peered through his binoculars, staring into the electronic media morass coagulated on 11th Street.
The 62-year-old Newman resident hoped to get a look at Geraldo Rivera or any of the other television celebrities he thought might be in town for Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing Wednesday.
"(Catherine) Crier from Court TV was here yesterday," he said.
Yet other than Day and a couple of Modesto Junior College students who snuck in to hobnob on media row, it was business as usual downtown on the first day of what could be a weeklong preliminary hearing.
And as they learned, there's really nothing interesting about being on the outside looking in.
This is Modesto -- not Los Angeles, where hundreds of people swarmed around the L.A. County Courthouse to stargaze at every proceeding during the O.J. Simpson trial.
This is Modesto, where working class folks aren't nearly as enamored with the national media as the national media is with itself.
This is Modesto, dealing with its third national story in the past five years.
Consequently, the opening day of the Scott Peterson hearing didn't cause nearly the problems authorities feared when they briefly considered shutting down a portion of I Street.
There are some simple reasons for this:
If you didn't already have a pass to get into the courtroom, there was little reason to be there. Only a few seats are available to the general public. The rest go to the families of Laci and Scott Peterson and the media.
With the number of media trucks the police anticipated, there was no better day to avoid going downtown unless you absolutely needed to be there. There were fewer people on the courthouse lawn Wednesday morning than on most other days.
Those who visited the civil court offices dealt with their business and didn't linger, as some often do.
The police did a commendable job of preparing for the media onslaught, using the future home of the Gallo Arts Center as a TV truck lot.
The Modesto Convention and Visitors Bureau set up a booth inside the media area on 11th, offering free coffee, doughnuts and sodas to the media. Kevin Shand said the bureau's intention is to convince the visiting media to do positive "sidebar" stories about Modesto while they're here.
But the wooing doesn't sit well with Michael O'Leary...........
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marjie Lundstrom: For Modestans, Peterson case sensational -- and personal
Marjie Lundstrom: For Modestans, Peterson case sensational -- and personal
By Marjie Lundstrom -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Thursday, October 30, 2003
Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here.
MODESTO -- Patrick the property manager came to get autographs. "Dan Abrams!" he blurted, lunging for the NBC correspondent.
Around the corner, Jerry the hot-dog stand owner hated to say it, but he was figuring to make money, perhaps double the usual take. Andy the social worker, who works nights, was drawn to this spot first thing in the morning -- a time he could be sleeping -- for reasons he couldn't quite explain, other than his burning curiosity.
They came here Wednesday on a perfect autumn day, gathering near a cordoned-off section of downtown Modesto. From a distance, the scene resembled a street fair with blue-and-white tents, portable bathrooms and clusters of spectators milling about.
Up close, there was no joy or celebration, only the trappings of a sensational murder case.
As fires raged in Southern California, garnering international media attention, this city of about 200,000 held its own in the week's news wars. Wednesday was the day the public and press had been waiting for in the legal proceedings against 31-year-old Scott Peterson, the former fertilizer salesman accused of murdering his wife, Laci, and unborn son, Conner.
"Oh, the plot twists!" said 43-year-old Patrick Kelly of Tracy, who drove to Modesto to collect autographs for his 13-year-old son outside the Stanislaus County Courthouse. "It's not been cut and dried at all."
And so it hasn't. It remained so Wednesday, as prosecutors made no stunning revelations, presenting exhaustive scientific testimony about DNA analysis.
But there is more to come -- the preliminary hearing could last five days -- and there is little doubt that the death of a pretty young pregnant woman and her son will continue to captivate this city and the nation.
This much is also true: In 2002, the same year Laci disappeared just before Christmas, 454 women were murdered in California -- shot, stabbed, beaten, poisoned, drugged, strangled, burned, drowned, asphyxiated and otherwise eliminated. The year before, there were 445, with more than one-fifth between ages 20 and 29 -- young females, like 27-year-old Laci Peterson, just moving into womanhood.
But Laci's is the case people remember, that many follow like a communal mystery novel. So many journalists tried to attend this week's proceedings, but could not get courtroom seats, that an "overflow" audio area was set up across the street under a large white tent.
On the sidewalk, Jack Williams, a 71-year-old retired appliance repairmen from Modesto, was so mesmerized by the spectacle he brought his video camera to "take pictures for posterity."
The murders have been a lot to bear for this community, which was central in the disappearances and murders of four other women in the last four years. First came Yosemite sightseers Carole and Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso, kidnapped and murdered in 1999. Next came Chandra Levy, the young Modesto woman found murdered last year in Washington, D.C.
And then Laci, the dimpled expectant mother whose baffling disappearance had residents leaving their Christmas turkeys to join in the search.
To this day, it remains personal for many area residents.
"We're always talking ...........
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peterson case moves at last from tabloids to
courtroom
Posted on Tue, Oct. 28, 2003
Peterson case moves at last from tabloids to courtroom
By Brian Anderson
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Defense attorney Kirk McAllister, center, walks into court followed by his client, Scott Peterson on Oct. 17, 2003. (Associated Press)
A strand of hair. A piece of tape. A brown van.
A trail of evidence leading to Laci Peterson's killer has been left behind.
From the time the Modesto woman vanished Christmas Eve to the days in April when her remains and those of her unborn baby were found in Richmond, investigators have pieced together a strange mix of clues. Those leads, authorities said, point to the woman's husband, Scott Peterson, who was arrested April 18 and charged in her killing.
But defense lawyers using the same evidence and roundly different theories say the evidence not only exonerates their client, but also shows who really committed the brutal crime.
Both sides will begin using that evidence Wednesday at a preliminary hearing to convince a Stanislaus County judge that their theory is accurate. Only the judge can decide if there is enough evidence incriminating Peterson to hold him for trial on murder charges and special circumstances that allow prosecutors to pursue a death sentence.
Bit by bit
Once off-limits, much of the evidence that is expected to be presented at the preliminary hearing has slowly filtered to the reporters who have been digging away at one of the country's hottest real-life dramas. In the beginning, leaks were to blame, even as officials worked to conceal from the media what they had found.
Leaks about Scott Peterson's mistress and an insurance policy he reportedly had taken out on his wife months before she disappeared found their way into the headlines. There were leaks about cement residue in his boat and on human remains that turned out to be Laci Peterson and her unborn son.
An investigator leaked information about photographs and hair samples authorities collected from Scott Peterson early in the case. "A source close to the defense" leaked information about taped phone calls and evidence that pointed to "credible suspects" in Laci Peterson's disappearance.
There was a leaked autopsy report, providing eager reporters with information that Laci's fetus was found with tape around its neck and a gash to its body.
There also were leaks about the "true killers," who, according to the defense, remain at large.
Some theories claimed it was burglars................
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Posted on Thursday, October 30 2003 at 5:15 PM PST ----
ATTENTION: Court on Friday, 10/31/03 begins at 9:00 AM. If you have a pass for seating in the courtroom, you MUST BE IN THE COURTROOM and SEATED by 8:45 am (PST).
A new court document is also now available online at http://www.pressupdate.info. Click on "Court Docs" for the following document.
1. Minute Order: Preliminary Hearing 10/30/03
(ie; Second day court provided overview) PDF (30 KB)
IMPORTANT!!! You must be in the courtroom and seated by 8:45 AM on Friday. Court begins at 9:00 am.
Anyone using the audio overflow room must turn their cell phones off - that means COMPLETE OFF - no vibrating/ringing phones permitted. This room is an extension of the courtroom and the sames rules apply.
Thank you for making this a smooth process!
Media Parking Lot Map
Posted on Sunday, October 26 2003 at 3:47 PM PST ----
A detailed map indicating the designated parking spaces for satellite trucks, microwave vehicles and crew cars for the upcoming Peterson Preliminary Hearing is now available online. Go to http://www.pressupdate.info/prelim and download this map.
YOU MUST FOLLOW THIS MAP. ANY UNAUTHORIZED VEHICLES WILL BE TOWED AWAY IF THEY DO NOT FOLLOW THE SPACE DESIGNATIONS.
Authorization must be obtained by your network affiliation representative or CNN/Court TV.
You may download the map
For many media members DNA testimony very dull
By JULISSA McKINNON
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: October 31, 2003, 05:37:07 AM PST
It was a boring news day in "Camp Peterson." At least that was the buzz inside the white media tents lined up outside the Stanislaus County Courthouse.
But the shows still went on Thursday.
Hair was sprayed, then resprayed.
Anchors rehearsed 30-second takes in serious tones, while makeup artists powdered the personalities' faces.
Off camera, reporters complained that the second day of Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing felt like "DNA 101" all over again.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos spent most of the day grilling an FBI expert about the validity of mitochondrial DNA evidence. DNA tests were done on a strand of hair that was attached to a pair of pliers found under a seat in Peterson's boat.
"While they were going back and forth about DNA evidence, our eyes start to glaze over," TV reporter Robert Handa said after wrapping up the day's events in two sentences for the news on KTVU Channel 2 in the Bay Area. "But even though we're bored, we still have to focus, because this will be a key piece of evidence."
Other TV anchors were ready to write off the day as a waste of their time.
News anchor Miriam Hernandez of KGO Channel 7 out of San Francisco hurried back to her van, parked in a dirt lot, to edit her script.
"If Arnold's news conference goes too long, I may not even make air," said Hernandez, referring to Gov.-elect Schwarz- enegger. "That means I've done all this work for nothing."
Still other media people embraced the slowness.
The ABC News crew just flew into Modesto after spending several sleepless nights chasing the Southern California wildfires. Producer Ronal Ellison said the crew is due back on the fire line Saturday.
"It's like a vacation," sound engineer Doug Lantz said with a smile. He said a comfy room at the DoubleTree Hotel beats staying awake wondering if your bed might catch on fire.
Camaraderie prevailed among the myr-iad TV crews along 11th Street.
"Ever since O.J., we kind of bonded," said Lantz............
I like the intro from the NY Post article compared to the one from KTVU.
NY Post--Jail is a bummer to Scott Peterson, who says in letters to a pal that he's cried in his bunk over the deaths of the wife and son he allegedly killed.
KYVU-- In jailhouse letters to a friend written in pencil on a simple yellow legal pad, accused double killer Scott Peterson has revealed a world filled with tears and lost
True. Next up: Relatives who last saw her alive. Now that should be very interesting, indeed.
Witness, Geragos spar over DNA
Members of the Ceres High School criminal justice class got in line at 5 a.m. Thursday so they could get into Courtroom 2 to sit in on the hearing. From right are Brianne Cooney, Marissa Andreasen, Shawna Eavis and Stacy Schuber. BART AH YOU/THE BEE
Peterson defense attorney Mark Geragos grilled Constance L. Fisher, a DNA expert for the FBI, about testing techniques. LAURIE McADAM/THE BEE
Scott Peterson consulted notes during a portion of Thursday's DNA testimony at his preliminary hearing. LAURIE McADAM/THE BEE
Joe and Janey Peterson -- Scott Peterson's brother and sister-in-law -- leave the Stanislaus County Courthouse after Thursday's testimony. AL GOLUB/THE BEE
By JOHN COTÉ
and GARTH STAPLEY
Last Updated: October 31, 2003, 05:37:06 AM PST
A federal DNA expert concluded her testimony Thursday after a second grueling day on the stand as Scott Peterson's defense sought to show a disputed DNA technique is unreliable and should be excluded from court.
Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami is set to hear testimony Monday from a defense DNA expert before making a decision on the issue.
FBI expert Constance L. Fisher was the only witness to testify for the second straight day in Peterson's preliminary hearing on double-murder charges.
FBI lab technicians used mitochondrial DNA testing on a single hair found attached to pliers in Peterson's boat and determined it could not have been his, but may have been his wife's.
If the FBI findings hold up, the hair could be a key piece of evidence linking Laci Peterson to the boat that her husband said he took fishing to San Francisco Bay on Dec. 24, the day she was reported missing. He said she was missing when he arrived back at their Modesto home.
Laci Peterson, 27, was almost eight months pregnant at the time. Scott Peterson, 31, is charged with murdering his wife and their unborn son, Conner. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Laci Peterson's body and that of her son were found in April along the bay's eastern shore, several miles from where her husband said he went fishing.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos spent much of Thursday questioning Fisher in an attempt to show that mitochon- drial DNA was a scientifically disputed technique. Geragos also tried to show that faulty equipment colored the FBI's results.
Fisher, who rolled her eyes at a question just 16 minutes into the morning session, held her ground under repeated questioning, saying the technique is widely regarded as accurate and scientifically valid.
"There is always debate going on in a community," Fisher said. But, she said, disputes about mitochondrial DNA are not "sizable."
Fisher acknowledged the FBI lab equipment could be "persnickety," but said routine problems did not compromise test results.
Mitochondrial DNA differs from nuclear DNA, which is found in the nucleus of a cell and positively identifies tissues. Mitochondrial DNA is found elsewhere in a cell and cannot be used as a unique identifier.
A maternal tie
Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from one's mother, and all maternal family members share the same mitochondrial DNA in most cases, Fisher said.
Mitochondrial DNA analysis can rule out a match with a known sample, but cannot show that a test sample came from a specific person.
Fisher testified that the hair found in Peterson's boat could have come from Laci Peterson's mother or brother. Laci Peterson's half sister, Amy Rocha, has a different mother.
Geragos attempted to show that the FBI failed to follow its own guidelines, asking Fisher why the FBI lab did not extract DNA from one of Peterson's bones and compare it with the hair.
Fisher said that was not necessary because analysts had a viable saliva sample from Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, and that analyzing DNA from a bone is more difficult than from a saliva sample.
FBI guidelines Geragos read in court said technicians "should" compare results with a second tissue sample.
"'Should' has wiggle room in it," Fisher said. "There is a difference between 'should' and 'must.'"
Geragos also took aim at the computer
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<<<<<<<<<>>>>>Hergus:
Here is anther pic of Joe Peterson to add to your files of family images
Posted on Fri, Oct. 31, 2003
Peterson lawyer chips at DNA flaws
By Brian Anderson
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
MODESTO - Attorney Mark Geragos continued on Thursday to pound on forensics testing that linked a hair found in Scott Peterson's boat to his dead wife, saying that the FBI's DNA handling procedures are incredibly flawed.
In a second day of cross examining FBI biochemist Constance L. Fisher, Geragos zeroed in on the agency's reliance on what he characterized as an unreliable, "evolving" practice.
Fisher acknowledged that a database housing thousands of mitochondrial DNA patterns could be more comprehensive and that a known technological limitation of the system's computer software was never fixed.
She also said during occasionally charged questioning that more accurate nuclear DNA tests of bone were avoided in favor of using "faster, easier" -- but less exacting -- mitochondrial DNA exams. Laci Peterson's mother provided a saliva sample used to link the strand of hair to Laci.
"We know from our experience that bone is very difficult to work with," Fisher said, adding that testing bones "would have given us the same information."
The hair, potentially a key piece of evidence for prosecutors, was pulled from a pair of pliers investigators discovered in Scott Peterson's 14-foot aluminum boat. Peterson had told authorities he was fishing the waters of San Francisco Bay on Dec. 24 when Laci Peterson, 27, his wife of five years, vanished from the couple's quiet Modesto neighborhood.
Her decomposed body and that of the couple's unborn son washed ashore in April in and near Richmond. Peterson, 31, was arrested days later and charged with their slayings.
Prosecutors are trying to convince ------------
Peterson's friends describe his letters written from cell
Peterson's friends describe his letters written from cell
By GARTH STAPLEY
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: October 31, 2003, 05:37:06 AM PST
A heavy metal door clangs shut in the three-story Stanislaus County Jail. Scott Peterson buries his head in a blanket, afraid to let other inmates see him crying. So goes life behind bars for one of the country's most notorious suspected killers, according to letters that Peterson sends various acquaintances, his dead wife's friend said Thursday.
"He makes references to memories of Laci," said Heather Richardson of Ventura County. She said she compared Peterson's letters to others that he apparently sent to friends in Stanislaus and Monterey counties -- and found nearly identical passages.
"It's a little irritating to us," said Richardson, who was maid of honor at Scott and Laci Peterson's 1997 wedding. Her husband, Mike, was best man. Scott Peterson took refuge from the media at the Richardsons' home in January as searchers looked for his missing wife.
"We were their best friends," Heather Richardson said, "and (Scott) doesn't have unique thoughts for us. He writes generally the same stuff to everybody."
A source said Peterson, a member of one of the Rotary Clubs in Modesto, wrote at least a half-dozen letters to "community leaders" about a week after his arrest April 18. All contained similar wording expressing desire to continue friendships after his "exoneration," the source said.
Peterson avoids writing in detail about the double-murder case against him, Richardson said.
"He never says, 'I didn't do this,' but it's inconceivable in his mind that he had anything to do with it," Richardson said Thursday.
"It's kind of cryptic, as far as I'm concerned," she continued. "It's not exactly what you'd expect from someone facing what he is. It's like he is not realizing the reality of the situation he's in."
Peterson faces the death pen- alty if convicted of murdering his wife and their son, Conner.
A long-awaited preliminary hearing got under way Wednesday and is expected to continue through most of next week.
"In an upcoming forum, you will be able to see the evidence my team has put together," Peterson once wrote, Richardson said. She said she assumed he referred to the preliminary hearing.
A branch of the Simi Valley fire this week burned to the Richardsons' property in Fillmore, she said, but did not reach the house.
"Good or bad, it's nice to be preoccupied down here so (the hearing) is not always everything I think about," Richardson said. "At this point, we're just waiting to hear all the evidence."................
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.