Surveillance of Scott Peterson's home takes center stage

MODESTO, California (CNN) -- A Modesto police detective testified Wednesday that investigators set up a video surveillance of Scott Peterson's home to monitor his activities soon after his pregnant wife disappeared.

The issue was raised in the ongoing preliminary hearing for Peterson, who is charged with murder in the deaths of his pregnant wife, Laci, and unborn son.

Defense attorney Mark Geragos was outraged that defense attorneys had only recently learned of the tapes, and he pressed the judge to order the prosecution to turn over the videotapes.

"We want to know where the tapes are, we want to know why the tapes weren't mentioned before," Geragos said outside court.

Most of all, he said, defense attorneys want to know what the videotapes show during a January day when Peterson's home was burglarized while he was out of town.

"One would think you'd want to take a look at that and see what it is, what's being carried in, what's being carried out," said Geragos. "This is a capital case, and a capital case means they're trying to put my client to death. And in a capital case you should be held to a rigorous standard."

The bodies of Laci Peterson and the couple's unborn son, Connor, washed up on the shore of San Francisco Bay in April. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case.

Scott Peterson told police he was on his boat, fishing in San Francisco Bay, when his wife disappeared on Christmas Eve from their home in Modesto, about 80 miles away.

During Wednesday's hearing, Modesto Police Detective Al Brochinni said a closed-circuit surveillance camera was set up outside the Modesto home to monitor Scott Peterson's activities.

"It was viewed from a van so that someone could see what was going on," he said. "I do remember hearing from our surveillance teams that his driveway was being monitored from the van."

But he also said he didn't think the tape was being monitored January 19 when the Peterson home was burglarized. Police only watched the surveillance when Peterson was in town, he said.

In another development, Brochinni said he gave Scott Peterson's mistress, Amber Frey, a tape recorder around December 30, and took her to Radio Shack to get equipment for it.

Last week, Brochinni said police discovered that on December 9, two weeks before Laci disappeared, that Scott Peterson paid for his fishing boat with 14 $100 bills. Frey told police that on that same day, she confronted him about being married, and he told her that his wife had died, the detective testified.

In testimony earlier Wednesday, a senior scientist at the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, testified about a form of DNA analysis used to identify a strand of hair police found on a pair of pliers in the boat. Prosecutors contend the hair was Laci's.

Rebutting earlier defense testimony, Dr. Bruce Budowle said analysis of mitrochondrial DNA, or MTDNA, is a reliable method of identification.

"This stuff has been tested out," Budowle said. "As long as one follows reliable protocols, one should get reliable results."

Budowle was called by prosecutors to respond to testimony last week from a defense expert that MTDNA was not reliable.

MTDNA, which is passed from mother to child, is not as definitive as conventional DNA because it is not unique to each person. However, people who are closely related can share the same MTDNA sequences, and FBI analysts compared the hair found on the pliers with a sample from Laci Peterson's mother.

Prosecutors are expected to use the hair evidence to place Laci Peterson on the boat. The defense is trying to get the hair excluded, arguing that MTDNA analysis isn't accurate enough to identify the hair as hers.

The preliminary hearing will determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bind Peterson over for trial. ............

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Detective in Peterson Case Testifies
Detective's Testimony Reveals Police Techniques Used to Catch Scott Peterson

MODESTO, Calif. Nov. 12 — A detective who spent Christmas Eve questioning Scott Peterson and the next four months trying to find his missing wife testified Wednesday about how officers enlisted Peterson's friends, neighbors and mistress in the effort to snare him.

Detective Al Brocchini said he called friends of Scott and Laci Peterson to point out news articles about Scott's extramarital affair and a $250,000 insurance policy he took out on his wife before she vanished Dec. 24.

At one point, Brocchini made a note that he "was attempting to plant the seeds of suspicion" in a friend of Laci Peterson.

The testimony came as the defense continued cross-examining Brocchini, the first detective to investigate the disappearance of the pregnant woman. The defense has claimed investigators focused suspicion on Peterson and failed to catch the "real killers."

The officer said he tried to get friends to prod Scott Peterson for details about what happened to his wife. The remains of the 27-year-old substitute teacher and her unborn son washed ashore in San Francisco Bay in April only a few miles from where Peterson said he was fishing on the day she disappeared.

Brocchini said he took part in discussions with other officers about themes that Scott Peterson's former girlfriend Amber Frey should discuss when talking with Peterson during phone calls she was secretly recording.

He said he didn't recall coaxing Frey to suggest to Peterson that there had been an accident and he panicked, but he vaguely recalled officers telling her to pretend she was a suspect in the disappearance so that Peterson would feel sorry for her and take the rap, Brocchini said.

Also Wednesday, an FBI scientist denied that a DNA sample used to link Laci Peterson to a hair on her husband's boat was contaminated.

Bruce Budowle was called by prosecutors to rebut testimony from a defense expert who had criticized the DNA techniques used to analyze the hair, found in pliers in the boat Scott Peterson said he took fishing the day his wife disappeared.

The defense witness had said that testing of mitochondrial DNA was less reliable.........

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MODESTO – A detective who spent Christmas Eve questioning Scott Peterson and the next four months trying to find his missing wife testified Wednesday about how officers enlisted Peterson's friends, neighbors and mistress in the effort to snare him.

Detective Al Brocchini said he called friends of Scott and Laci Peterson to point out news articles about his extramarital affair and a $250,000 insurance policy Peterson took out on his wife.

The officer said he tried to get friends to prod Scott Peterson for details about what happened to his wife, who reportedly vanished Dec. 24 while he was fishing. The remains of the 27-year-old substitute teacher and her unborn son washed ashore in San Francisco Bay in April only a few miles from where Peterson said he was angling.

At one point, Brocchini made a note that he "was attempting to plant the seeds of suspicion" in a friend of Laci Peterson.

Defense lawyer Mark Geragos also renewed his claim Wednesday that investigators neglected to notify him of surveillance tapes taken outside Peterson's home. He called the failure "a problem of monumental proportions" and said it could lead to a request to dismiss the case.

Brocchini said he took part in discussions with other officers about themes that girlfriend Amber Frey should discuss when talking with Peterson during phone calls she was secretly recording.

He said he didn't recall coaxing her to suggest to Peterson that there had been an accident and he panicked, but he vaguely recalled officers telling her to pretend she was a suspect in the disappearance so that Peterson would feel sorry for her and take the rap, Brocchini said.

Brocchini said he was more concerned with her spilling the news that she was cooperating with police. He encouraged her to let Peterson talk.

"Laci was missing and he wasn't talking about Laci, he was talking about himself and where he was in Europe," Brocchini said about a phone call that came in when officers were at Frey's house in Fresno.

Defense lawyer Kirk McAllister asked Brocchini if he was trying to alienate Peterson from friends and show that he had a double motive when the officer phoned a friend of the couple to alert him to an article in The Modesto Bee about Frey and the insurance policy. Brocchini only said he wasn't trying to distance Peterson from his friends.

Brocchini said that police installed a camera on a pole across from Peterson's house to keep an eye on his comings and goings. If Peterson left the house and he was under surveillance, officers would be alerted and could tail him from a distance.

"Well, I heard it now," he said after Geragos requested the tapes based on a scant mention in 27,500 pages of police reports.

Geragos said there was a "rogue element here that's out there taping things" that other detectives didn't even know about. But prosecutor Rick Distaso denied there was any deceit and said the tapes were being turned over to the defense.

Brocchini said a surveillance officer told him Friday that occasionally they were bored and pushed the record button.

Geragos said the camera could have played an important role if it captured a burglary at the Peterson house between Jan. 16-19, but he refused to elaborate. A women who had played a role in the search for Laci Peterson was later arrested in the break-in.

Also on Wednesday, an FBI scientist defended the forensic evidence that linked Laci Peterson to a hair found in the boat her husband said he took fishing the day she disappeared. ............

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William Shields is a professor at SUNY E.S.F., and is an expert on DNA testing. Last week he was caught in the middle of a high profile murder case.

Shields has been hired by Scott Peterson's defense team. Peterson is accused of murdering his wife, Laci. Shields spends most of his day teaching biology at the school of Environmental Science and Forestry, but last week he went from a Syracuse classroom to a Modesto, California courtroom.

Shields blasted a DNA test that FBI agents used on hair found in Scott Peterson's boat. He's says the type of test can not positively link Peterson to the murder, saying there's room for error.

During his testimony, he had some heated exchanges with the lead prosecutor. The two bickered for quite awhile until the judge interrupted.

"The prosecutor in this case asked that question 100 times. He got me frustrated. I said, 'Please stop misrepresenting what I said,'" he said.

Shields is no stranger to this line of questioning. Shields worked for O.J. Simpson's defense team as a consultant on the DNA test for blood found at the crime scene. Simpson was found not guilty.

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Scott Peterson's defense lawyer accused prosecutors today of keeping secret video tapes from a surveillance camera mounted on a pole across the street from Peterson's house a week after his pregnant wife disappeared.

The camera, installed by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and monitored by the Modesto police, might have recorded a burglary at the Peterson house that occurred sometime before police searched the house for second time, Peterson's lawyer Mark Geragos said during the preliminary hearing.

Geragos said he wants to know what the burglars took out or brought into the house. This might have tainted the second search, which occurred on Feb. 18.

``All those things are important to the defense -- what goes in and out,'' Geragos said. Although Geragos requested the tapes last week, he said he has had trouble getting them. ``What we have here is nothing but a shell game in a capital case,'' he said.

Prosecutor Rick Distaso, said the camera, which was put into place on Jan. 3, was used to monitor the comings and goings of Peterson who was under surveillance by police for months before his April arrest.

Distaso says that the tapes should be available to Geragos later this afternoon.

Peterson is accused of killing his pregnant wife Laci, putting her body in the back of his fishing boat, towing it to the San Francisco Bay and dumping the body into the bay on Christmas Eve.

Four months later, Laci Peterson's body, and that of her unborn son, washed up on the eastern edge of the bay, not far from where Peterson said he went fishing.

The purpose of the preliminary hearing, which entered its third week today, is to determine whether there is enough evidence to have Peterson stand trial for both murders.

In testimony this morning, a dark strand of hair found in the bottom of Peterson's fishing boat was again the focus of a third expert witness. Prosecution witness Bruce Budowle, an FBI senior scientist, said the mitochondrial testing of the hair was reliable and accurate. An earlier prosecution expert testified that the hair most likely belonged to Laci Peterson.

So far, it appears the hair is the only piece of evidence linking Laci Peterson to her husband's boat.

Peterson's attorney Geragos tried to undermine the credibility of mitochondrial DNA testing saying the tests are .........

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5:15 p.m. PST: Scott Peterson’s girlfriend may have started taping their telephone conversations as soon as Dec. 16 - at least a week before his pregnant wife disappeared, courtroom drama revealed this afternoon. Fresno massage therapist Amber Frey began cooperating with police Dec. 30. Modesto police Det. Al Brocchini testified that she said she didn’t tape her chats with Peterson before then. Defense attorney Kirk McAllister intimated that was “a lie,” and asked Brocchini if he had heard that she began recording Dec. 16. The detective said no.

Frey, who has yet to testify at Peterson’s preliminary hearing, has said she didn’t know he was married when they met Nov. 20. Brocchini last week testified that Peterson told her about Dec. 9 that he had “lost his wife.”

Brocchini said he gave Frey his tape recorder Dec. 30 and bought her equipment at a Radio Shack store so she could tape phone conversations. Investigators hoped Peterson would not realize she was cooperating with authorities, the detective said.

The 31-year-old fertilizer salesman is charged with murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner.

“(Peterson) wasn’t talking about Laci” in chats with Frey, Brocchini testified. “He was talking about himself,” including a trip he faked to Europe in late December, the detective said.

Authorities believe he murdered his wife Dec. 23 or 24. The bodies of mother and child were recovered in mid-April.

Brocchini said he and other detectives coached Frey on what to say to Peterson. Responding to questions from defense attorney Kirk McAllister, Brocchini acknowledged urging Frey to paint herself as a possible suspect, in the event Peterson would admit guilt to deflect blame from her.

McAllister asked Brocchini about another tack, with Frey suggesting to Peterson that “maybe there was an accident, something happened and you (Peterson) panicked.” The detective responded, “It could have happened. I don’t remember it.”

A state Department of Justice officer sat in on some strategy meetings, Brocchini said. He said she was “not a psychologist,” but he did not pin down her position and McAllister moved on.

Brocchini also acknowledged urging a friend of Scott Peterson’s to read false information in The Bee regarding an insurance policy on Laci Peterson. But the detective said he didn’t know the information was false at the time.

“You were trying to poison his mind against Scott Peterson,” McAllister charged.

A member of Laci Peterson’s family had provided the information to The Bee, saying Scott Peterson had taken out a $250,000 policy on his wife in the summer of 2002. In reality, he had obtained the policy in January 2001.

The detective said he questioned as many friends of both Petersons as he could find. McAllister asked if Brocchini was willing to lie to them, but Judge Al Girolami agreed with a prosecutor’s objection and the detective did not answer.

Brocchini also testified that he did not know whether a surveillance camera captured neighbor Kimberly Ann McGregor breaking into the Peterson’s Covena Ave. home Jan. 18. Sources have said she drank alcohol and took Laci Peterson’s wedding dress, though it was later returned. No charges have been filed.

The detective said the camera, mounted Jan. 3 on a pole across the street from the home, allowed detectives in a nearby van to see when Scott Peterson was leaving, alerting investigators to follow him.......

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1:27 p.m., PST: Scott Peterson's defense lawyer verbally sparred with a second FBI scientist who testified that the bureau's DNA testing is sound.

Los Angeles attorney Mark Geragos continued late this morning to suggest that the bureau's technique can produce misleading results and relies on a flawed database, echoing a defense expert who testified last week. But Bruce Budowle, a senior scientist from the FBI's laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, insisted the testing is generally accepted in the scientific community.

Testing showed that a hair found in pliers in Scott Peterson's boat was not his but could have come from his wife, another FBI expert testified two weeks ago in Peterson's ongoing preliminary hearing.

He is charged with murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Authorities are trying to show that Scott Peterson used his 14-foot aluminum fishing boat to transport his wife's body after slaying her Dec. 23 or 24.

Geragos tried to get Budowle to acknowledge that there has been a "sea change" in DNA testing since the FBI's database was assembled in 1994. But the scientist was unyielding, asserting that technology improvements have kept pace with discoveries.........

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Yeah, I have a feeling he didn't want to be bothered while he was out there on that boat!

Since he later was passing off the Berkeley trip as sort of an impulse, it was stupid of him to have gone 4 days earlier and gotten that license in advance. Guess he figured that when the 24th came, he'd have little time to be stopping to buy lures and a fishing license.

Or maybe he dumped something connected with Laci's murder in Lopez Lake?

This was Jan. 9th and during the period of time Police were collecting evidence from him. They were following Scott and I don't think he did anything to raise their suspicions at the time. I don't know if he had his boat with him, because that was impounded at some point.

He may have just stood on the side of the Lake and woefully admitted to himself that he should have dumped Laci here, in a quiet mountain lake, rather than in the turbulent Bay near shipping channels and large fish activity that could disturb a submerged body and its bonds.

I wonder how much there would be left of a corpse after sitting for six years at the bottom of a fresh water lake.

What if--
What if Snott was there in the Marina for a different reason? What if he paid someone else to do the deed? He could have been out there to watch "others" do the deed from a distance. Is this plausible?

I have problems with the dogs not hitting on the boat, if he used his boat for her body transport.

Yeah, I see your point. I was thinking more, that he'd dumped whatever it was in Lopez Lake during his same trek to Berkeley (on the way to, or from), and that he was just sort of looking over the place to see if there'd been any police presence there.

However, this idea of mine that he maybe made a side trip to Lopez Lake at the same time he went to Berkeley to dump Laci--this idea has a problem in that he probably wouldn't have had time to go that much out of his way, on the night of the 23rd-24th.

As for a body at the bottom of a freshwater lake, I can offer this: I know of a lake like that. It was manmade and so it has the remnants of trees at the bottom of it--they flooded over forests to make this lake. And it is 200 feet deep in places, I hear. I read once that they'd solved a disappearance that occurred at that lake. A man had gone fishing and disappeared. Turned out he'd fallen out of the boat and drowned. Something like 5-10 years after he'd disappeared, they'd found his body. He was still wearing the clothes he'd fished in, and in his pocket was his driver's license and everything in his wallet--which was how they identified him. I understand the body was fairly well preserved, at least it didn't fall apart or anything.

I think when his body sank, it got caught on some of the branches that were under the water. I guess that's why they used to shoot off cannons when they were searching for drowning victims--it caused a vibration which might shake the body loose.

Nevertheless, It seems that Snott would have had a difficult time concealing anything in his (open aluminum flat boat) that Fish and Game wouldn't have seen or been curious about if they were to have stopped him.

A tip was received that someone saw a truck and a boat like Scott's going west on 580 predawn of the 24th, with something big in the boat. He would have launched the boat in darkness, perhaps with a full moon. I'll check the weather report for that morning.

I have problems with the dogs not hitting on the boat, if he used his boat for her body transport.

I remember reading much earlier in all this, that the scent dogs have some degree of failure to hit, can't remember now what percentage, but I was surprised that is was as high as it sounded.

RGSpincich posted,"The police have never called it off. They want to hear every word SP has to say to Amber. Her conversations with SP are not subject to the wiretap order. Credibility problems? Whoever it was who mentioned that Amber continued taping after the MPD called it off has credibility problems"

(I'm sorry RG,but I remember very well. I asked DA some questions about it.)On the Fox News Network October 4th. Rita Cosby reported LE told Amber they didn't need anymore recordings but Amber and her family kept on recording anyway.

On the Fox News Network October 4th. Rita Cosby reported LE told Amber they didn't need anymore recordings but Amber and her family kept on recording anyway.

I don't doubt Rita said that... breathlessly. I do doubt that the MPD ever wanted Amber to stop recording calls from SP. They may have given her the opportunity to opt out of the recording thing but she chose to see it through to the end. That's a good thing. Everything this guy has to say to Amber should be recorded.

I don't think MPD ever "called it off". I think they appreciate ever tid-bit they get.

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