SCOTT: I WEEP IN JAIL

The NY Post ^ | October 31, 2003 | HOWARD BREUER

[runningbear]

SCOTT: I WEEP IN JAIL

Laci

SCOTT: I WEEP IN JAIL

By HOWARD BREUER

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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 ..............

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Peterson Trial Briefs

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 .........

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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...........

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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

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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 ...........

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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................

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[drjulie]

"Is it common for narcissists as compared with the general population to have the ability to conceal rage and hostility? I understand the "acting ability" that they have I just don't understand the concealing of STRONG emotions. The reason I keep plugging this point is bc I found it hard to believe that there were not some cracks visible to Laci in her marriage."

When narcissists experience rage it is usually because of criticism or frustration. Not all narcissists experience rage, however, some react with cold indifference while others become depressed. Assuming Scott is a narcissist, he could have experienced frustration with his situation and reacted with indifference. Since there have been no reports (to my knowledge) of him "throwing fits" throughout his life he may be one who becomes indifferent and simply makes a decision to get rid of his wife. You ask an interesting question as to what Laci may have noticed with regard to Scott's behavior. We'll probably never know the answer but my guess is that she wasn't consciously aware of what was going on in his head. If he was acting "a bit unusual" she may have attributed it to the major changes occurring in their lives.

[Velveeta]

Thanks for all the pings. Trying to get caught up now.

[Devil_Anse]

Alas, I don't think they can get prints off the loose weave that makes up the standard dog leash nowadays. I'm sure it was one of those woven ones, everyone has them. Leather leashes are rarer nowadays.

You're right, though, the area where it clasps/unclasps, now that's made of metal. Could hold prints. But in my mind, the problem is: Scott would say, "Of course my prints are overlaid on Laci's on the leash--she put the leash on the dog, and I took the leash off, after I found the dog in the yard wearing the leash."

[Queen Jadis]

At first I was going to say that I support anything that takes away a little joy from murderers in jail. But then if statistics are right they probably die earlier, thus leaving us with a lower tax bill.

[drjulie]

"Maybe he's one of those pathologically obsessive-compulsive types like Al Gore, who used to shower over and over again, every time he came back after being out. When that thought flashed by, suddenly I got thinking of how John List, a definite obsessive-compulsive, felt like he had to make a clean sweep, and kill his whole family, not just the family members he was mad at."

I'm glad you brought this up again. I've made this observation several times on this board. He appears very obsessive-compulsive. Going back to to bay over & over, the phone calls/relationships with Amber, etc. I would like to know more about his other affairs/relationships. I bet they were obsessive in nature. It wouldn't surprise me if he moved from one obssessive affair to another.

[Sandylapper]

Count me in on the discussion of the layout/blueprint of the Peterson home. Am I getting it now, if I said that when the house was originally built, the house was built lengthwise to the lot vs. widthwise? That the kitchen is/was behind the original garage?

I have been assuming that the two windows that we see in the very front of the house were bedroom windows. (Talking about the most frequently shown pictures on TV). Also thought that the garage was to the left of the house where we see Scott entering the wooden gate. Thought the original dining and kitchen area were to the right of the entrance (galley style kitchen/w/o "formal" dining room), and to the left was original living room. The bedrooms and baths were to a hard left of the living room.

[Spunky]

"Spunky, I think your tour was right on the money."

Glad to hear I was a good tour guide. Maybe I should get a job along this line. :-)

That little white roof beyond the pool must be a carport or a patio cover.

I am glad to hear you say that is a swamp cooler on the roof. I thought maybe it was, but not sure.

Sandylapper in this picture we are looking from the back yart towards the front. See RG's posting at #553 for the discription there.

[Velveeta]

I so badly wish to see Vel perform a full skit where she does the voice, AND spits the ketchup.

Unfortunately, given my upbringing, any time I attempt to perform an accent "live", I end up sounding like Zsa Zsa Gabor. Hence, in order to stay true to my performance, I'd have to spit Goulash and see vat heppenz vit dat.

[Velveeta]

"La Bo-Phlegm"

Priceless! This one gets logged in the annals for posterity!

[Velveeta]

Dear Tile Lady,

What's the best cleaning solution for a smooth shiny tile? Seems anything I try ends up looking streaky.

Signed,
Yearning for hardwood floors

[Devil_Anse]

Are you familiar with the murders by John List? What I remember is: List was brought up strictly, an only child, by his German mother and father. His mother was very attentive to detail in making sure everything was perfect. That is, she was a bit TOO attentive to detail--even when he got older, she was micromanaging his life.

Everything had to be neat. Everything had to be proper. And I think he lived his life that way even when he got out on his own. Incidentally, when List was married with 3 children, his mother was living with them.

His wife had disappointed him. (Hers was a very strange story.) She was, to be charitable, less than perfect. His children looked adorable, from their photos. BUT the two older ones had just reached puberty a couple years b/f the murders. As anyone who's gotten that far raising a child knows, things really, really change when one's little darling suddenly has a mind of his/her own! People who still have little adorable people in their home smile when we tell them this; they have NO idea!

So his daughter was becoming quite independent and rebellious. It upset him greatly. And his wife was less than perfect, and his mother still nagged him a bit. And he wasn't making enough money to even furnish the very large house he'd bought for them. His self-image was that he was some fairly high-echelon, successful company man, but the truth was, he wasn't making the cut. His finances were a mess.

So when he wanted to kill SOME members of his family, instead, he killed all of them. IMO, it was that compulsive "it's got to be a clean sweep", tendency. IMO, some of these people can't stand, for example, to clean up a mess and muddle on, instead they are forever starting something over from scratch.

When he killed them, he left his mother in her attic apartment. But the rest, he laid each one on a sleeping bag in a large room (their house had a ballroom; it was unfurnished.) The sleeping bags were arranged in a line. The only "un-perfect" part of it was that he left the wife's nightgown up, where she was exposed. Then List sat down and wrote a full confession and addressed it to his pastor. Then he disappeared for 18 years. He was able to stay undiscovered that long partly b/c he resolved not to get so much as a parking ticket. And he didn't--sometimes I guess it pays to be a perfectionist!

Maybe Scott is that sort of perfectionist. As we've all noticed, his hair and physical appearance are always perfect. Even the dye job was no cheap peroxide job! When Scott sits there in his suit, with his lawyers, I think he fancies himself just another part of the legal team.

Such a perfectionist wouldn't be satisfied with a divorce, which might take a year or two to litigate. Seems that he'd want a clean, perfect, unfettered beginning. No half-orphaned son to worry about! No trace of the wife he'd fallen out of love with, not even her car to make things less than a clean beginning. A new beginning, as though Laci and Connor had never existed to mess up his life.

[Velveeta]

If any of these pieces of jewelry were gifted to Amber, it's a slam dunk for sure.

[Jrabbit]

I'll bet you're right!! LOL!!

[Devil_Anse]

Why, thank you. Picture it: Dr. Lee is out on the stage, singing in his clear tenor (I'm guessing), and as his plaintive song reaches its high point, blobs of ketchup shoot from his mouth and land on a nearby poster board. The blot they make spells "not guilty"--oh, but, see, it's in French or Italian, of course... opera, you know... (hey, we're not a bunch of yahoos here... )

[Devil_Anse]

That is an interesting theory--about the water breaking. And if I'm not mistaken, there are cells that get in the amniotic fluid, so it seems that if there were any such fluid left on anything, they might be able to tell through sampling.

[Canadian Outrage]

Hey fiesti, I've always thought that maybe she got the broken ribs by a hard punch from Snott. That would likely make her vomit and bleed (as in lungs) Lungs are very vascular. And it is common knowledge that one of the mops had vomit and specks of blood. I know some think it was a boat propeller but I'm more convinced there was a punch. When Detective Ridenour made the press conference where he said that it was being changed from a missing person to a homicide case, he said "We have come to believe that Laci was the victim of a violent crime"!! And your right, her water could have broken. Whatever it was, it was violent, gruesome and brutal and the perp (Snott) needs to die!! I cannot believe that anyone on the prospective Jury, could literally break Sharon Rocha and Dennis Rocha's hearts AGAIN by letting this creep run free.

[Devil_Anse]

Er... I don't quite follow what you're saying there.