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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I know that about fresh water lakes. Our lake here has coughed up bodies in their clothes etc. many years after they disappeared.

Dang! What did I miss?

Why is that poster stdiego now gone? I had posted to him/her, and now all the posts she wrote were deleted.

I miss all the good stuff.

Yes I too thought that that was another strike against Peterson's horrendously bad character. "seeking to meet another woman"!! I'll bet that Sharon, Ron, Laci's real Dad, brother and sister, wished that they had had some chance to "detect" who this guy was. They would likely have had their loved one today.

Yes, I agree. You do have to wonder where he got all his money. It sure doesn't seem like he was a workaholic - I am amazed he even had time to work - with the golfing, the girl friends, the clubs, etc.But he did have time I guess to take up a new hobby - fishing!

Sorry that I am so behind here, but why would Amber have wanted to tape Scott's calls before distrusting him on the married issue? Didn't she even leave her small child alone with him at some point? Why do all that she did with him if she was so suspicious of him?

And what about her weirdness with the previous wife of a married man, going to see her baby in the hospital, throwing the wife (without the wife) a baby shower, and all that? Is that what Geragos wants to hit her over the head with now, on the stand, to disqualify her as a believable witness?

They just reported on Court TV that on redirect the detective stated that Scott purchased a fishing license on the 20th for the 23rd & 24th. He clearly know on the 20th he would be going fishing on one of those two days.

Wow. Everything points to premeditation. Now, why wasn't he telling everyone in the family that he would be fishing? I wonder if he told the guy behind the counter when he got the fishing license "This is just in case it's too cold to golf on those days."

Gloria Allred and others suggested last night that Amber may have suspected "something" about Snott was not right. Taping conversations was HER way of protecting herself. Otherwise, you can be sure that LIAR Peterson would deny everything he ever said. Also, the thing with the other wife. The wife and husband were living apart. Amber was younger then clearly made some bad choices. However, I think that she was DETERMINED to know that she wasn't getting into the same situation with Peterson. It really was important to her that he was NOT married.

The Petersons MUST have known he was guilty when that tip came in.

I love my three sons very much, and it would kill me, but if they murder like this, that's it. I will be one mother who will NOT go on the stands crying and say what a "nice" boy my son was. When you MURDER (not kill, because it could be accident or self-defense, or war), that's it. I can't defend a murderer.

I'm beginning to think that maybe Peterson is somewhat retarded!! But actually it's more that he has gotten away with everything in his life up till now so he thought he could get away with ANYTHING. Even this.

You nailed it, I think. The Mindhunter, FBI profiler John Douglas, says that this type of crime is most often NOT the first. He thinks he can get away with it because he HAS gotten away with it in the past. He said something to the effect that he would not be surprised if it had happened before.

Scott Peterson when he came home, went running to a neighbour and said he'd been GOLFING all day and now Laci was missing"!!

I had not heard THIS ONE. Wow. Was he BEGGING to get caught? Gosh, why even attempt to move her body? Why not save some money for the state (and less mopping and driving for you) and just call the cops and confess? Whaddyah mean, you talking TV heads, that they have no case? I think even the OJ jury would convict Scott, hearing this full story. Even if he were black, too!

I bet he drugged her. Who knows, he may have fixed her some tea with GHB in it. He may have used the pool to drown her once she was out. Remember that they drained the pool water and took a certain amount of it.

I would do the exact same thing. It would be the hardest thing a parent ever had to do but it would be the only thing to do. Peterson's are not moral people themselves. Look at their history.!! I actually think Jackie Peterson is the worst but Lee Peterson isn't far behind.

"I think even the OJ jury would convict Scott, hearing this full story. Even if he were black, too!"

I heard one of the talking heads on tv yesterday say something about not getting a fair trial in Modesto where there were only about 3 blacks. What the hell does THAT have to do with it?? Thought a jury was supposed to be of your peers?

You know when I try to picture exactly what Peterson did to Laci, I almost get sick. The last minutes of that girls life were probably horrible. Can you imagine how Sharon Rocha, and Dennis Rocha must feel? No wonder Sharon Rocha said "when I allow myself to think what might have happened to them, I literally get sick to my stomach"!!

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