DREAD 'TAKING TOLL' ON AMBER

MISS STRESS: Amber Frey has been busy preparing for the birth of her baby while dreading the inevitable call to ex-lover Scott Peterson's trial, her dad says. - ZUMA Press

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March 15, 2004 -- LOS ANGELES - Scott Peterson's former mistress Amber Frey is carrying two burdens these days: the baby boy that's due within a few weeks and her obligation to take the witness stand in her ex-lover's double-murder trial, her father says.

Frey, 29, and her live-in boyfriend, Dr. David Markovich, a chiropractor, are due to become parents in late April. The judge wants to have a jury by April, but defense efforts to move the trial a second time could slow things down.

Although Frey doesn't expect to be forced to testify before she delivers her baby, she's still stressed over the trial, her father said.

"She has to testify and confront the person she was in love with once," Ron Frey, 52, said. "It takes its toll on her."

Trial observers expect that defense attorney Mark Geragos will leave no stone unturned in trying to discredit her. Although she didn't know Scott was married or that his wife was about to give birth to a boy, prosecutors say Peterson was so in love with Frey that he murdered his wife to be with her.

Days after Laci's disappearance on Christmas Eve 2002, Frey became an informant and tried to get Peterson to explain his actions as the cops bugged their phones.

She's about to graduate from an esthetician program so she can do facials and hair removal. She still works as a massage therapist. She spends the latter part of the day with her 3-year-old daughter and with Markovich.

Although the pregnancy was unplanned, "she's just tickled pink," her dad said. "So's Dr. Markovich."

Although she's a fitness nut, Frey is too far along to get to the gym these days, her father said, adding that she's planning to stop working within a couple of weeks and focus on feathering her nest.

Her dad said he's impressed with the way Markovich carries himself, with his abilities as a chiropractor, and with his parenting skills.

"He has the patience and what it takes to be a high-quality father," said Frey, who hopes .....

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March 15, 2004 -- LOS ANGELES - As Scott Peterson's attorneys prepare to argue for another change of venue, they're hoping the case of Dr. Sam Sheppard - whose claim that he was wrongfully accused of his wife's murder inspired "The Fugitive" - will aid in their cause.

Jury consultant William DeHaven, who consults with Peterson attorney Mark Geragos, said he's currently reading books about the Sheppard case and is astounded by the similarities - a factor that should work heavily in Geragos' favor.

* Attractive suburban housewife Marilyn Sheppard and Laci Peterson were pregnant when they were murdered.

* Hours after Marilyn Sheppard was discovered dead in 1954, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Coroner Samuel Gerber assumed that her husband killed her, causing police to focus their investigation on him. Geragos has waged the same complaint against Modesto, Calif., police.

* During Sheppard's retrial, Coroner Cyril Wecht of Pittsburgh said Gerber botched the original probe. Wecht has been retained to testify for Peterson's defense

* Prosecutors in each case focused on the fact that the victim's husband was having an affair. One newspaperman observed that Sheppard was tried for murder but convicted of adultery.

* Sheppard quickly lost the battle in the court of public opinion, which reached its own verdict long before the trial. Geragos said last week that the judge must take steps to ensure that Peterson's jury isn't tainted by pretrial publicity.Howard Breuer ..........

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A videocassette with footage Scott or Laci Peterson likely took in 2002 was stolen from their home shortly after she disappeared, the man who found it said police told him.

Whether the film contains evidence or will be used in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial remained unclear Friday.

Eddie Gibson of Modesto said Thursday that police Detective Doug Ridenour told him the videotape revealed no link to the pregnant woman's Christmas Eve 2002 disappearance.

But authorities on Friday stayed silent about a burglary of the home shortly after Laci Peterson disappeared. Gibson found the camera a day later.

Gibson described footage of household items on the tape, including jewelry -- a topic of apparent interest to Scott Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos. He questioned two witnesses about Laci Peterson's jewelry during her husband's preliminary hearing in October.

The 31-year-old fertilizer salesman faces the death penalty if convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son. Possible jurors are being screened in Redwood City, where the trial was moved after crushing media coverage in Modesto.

Gibson said he can't remember if the footage of the jewelry showed a date. That portion of the tape appeared to be consistent with an inventory of valuables for a homeowner policy, he said.

At Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing, the Petersons' housecleaner confirmed seeing jewelry on a bedroom counter the day before Laci Peterson went missing. That testimony came under questioning by Geragos. The housekeeper, Margarita Nava, said she could not remember if Laci Peterson wore jewelry that day.

Also at the hearing, Amy Rocha, Laci Peterson's sister, agreed under Geragos' questioning that the sisters had inherited a "substantial amount" of jewelry from their paternal grandmother three weeks before Laci Peterson vanished.

Geragos' intent regarding the jewelry was unclear. He called no witnesses during the hearing.

"The Perfect Husband," a made-for-television movie that first appeared last month on the USA Network and was supposedly based on the Modesto case, indicated that Scott Peterson had given some of his wife's jewelry to his girlfriend. However, sources have told The Bee that account is not accurate.........

Valued bond between client, lawyer eroding

Posted 3/16/2004 9:37 PM

Valued bond between client, lawyer eroding

By Jonathan Turley

While lawyers often are valued for such canine-like attributes as aggression, persistence and even viciousness, loyalty is their most essential attribute. With confidentiality, it represents a type of legal Hippocratic oath: that we will do no harm to our clients.

Two disturbing trends that reduce confidentiality guarantees have surfaced recently: a rise in the number of exceptions to attorney-client confidentiality and an increase in lawyers discussing cases at the expense of their former clients.

The latest example came this month in the case of Scott Peterson, who is on trial for the murder of his wife, Laci, and their unborn child. Judge Alfred Delucchi ruled that the prosecution could use audiotapes that police secretly recorded of Peterson speaking with his first attorney before he was charged. Peterson sought to have these tapes excluded as a violation of his attorney-client privilege, but Delucchi ruled that the content essentially was inconsequential.

Many Americans, no doubt, are eager to hear the tapes and gain glimpses of Peterson in his most unguarded moments. But the rapid loss of confidentiality in attorney-client discussions should concern us far more than what Peterson said to his lawyer. If people — or companies — are worried that their conversations might be used against them, they will lose trust in our government.

The attorney-client privilege, which goes back to the days of Elizabethan England, encourages clients to speak honestly with their lawyers so the attorneys can give legal advice and stop the clients who are contemplating questionable acts. But if the confidentiality of citizens' conversations with their attorneys can be subject to case-by-case waivers — as Peterson's has been — Americans never will really know what will happen to the information they provide to their lawyers. That possibility naturally will encourage clients to be less candid. For lawyers, the loss of guarantees of confidentiality creates a real possibility that their representation could harm a client. In the Peterson case, the lawyer actually became a tool of the police by lowering his client's defenses after giving him what turned out to be a false assumption of confidentiality.

A web link full of stuff:

Laci Peterson Case Information

A Summary of the People, the Events, and the Places and the Things That Define the Laci Peterson Investigation and the Case of the Century: The People of the State of California v. Scott Lee Peterson

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Two-thirds of jurors have been excused

Article Last Updated: Friday, March 12, 2004 - 3:43:20 AM PST

Two-thirds of jurors have been excused

By Jason Dearen, STAFF WRITER

REDWOOD CITY -- After the first week of jury selection in the Scott Peterson double-murder trial, about two-thirds of people called as prospective jurors have been excused for financial or other hardships.

"We finished the first wave. We've got through 1,000 jurors. About two-thirds of those have been excused right off the bat for various reasons," said defense attorney Mark Geragos outside the Hall of Justice on Thursday.

The large number of excused jurors -- 404 out of 600 were dismissed in the first three days alone -- highlights the laborious process involved in finding 12 people who can afford to sit in court for six months, not to mention the difficult task of identifying people who have not already formed strong opinions about the high-profile case.

"(Now), the prosecution and defense will cull out those who make the grade and those who don't," Geragos said. Attorneys have next week off to examine the questionnaires of those jurors who have not been excused on hardships.

Starting March 22, the remaining jurors will be questioned individually by the judge and attorneys on both sides. The first question they will be asked is if they would be able to sentence Peterson to death if he is found guilty.

In addition to the high number of excused jurors, Geragos said this week that his review of the questionnaires shows a high prejudgment rate -- the number of jurors in the pool biased against his client. Geragos said he plans to file a motion next week seeking a change of venue or other remedies to the problem.

"The message was clear up front this was going to be a tough jury selection," said Paul Lisnek, a Chicago-based jury consultant. "People don't want to be tied up for six months."

But Judge Alfred Delucchi is still confident a jury can be seated in San Mateo County and has indicated he will call as many people as needed to find 12 jurors and six alternates. "This is a difficult case, granted. But I'm sure it can be handled by the people of San Mateo County," he said during his introductory comments to prospective jurors.

Peterson, 31, faces the death penalty for allegedly murdering .....

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PETERSON TRIAL

318 potential jurors remain -- 683 have been excused

State Supreme Court refuses to allow TV in court

Chronicle Staff Report

Thursday, March 18, 2004

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The potential jury pool in the Scott Peterson murder trial has been whittled down to 318, court officials announced Wednesday.

Judge Alfred Delucchi expects to seat a jury of 12 and six alternates from that group.

Exactly 1,000 San Mateo County residents appeared in the Redwood City courtroom between March 4 and 11. After filling out lengthy questionnaires, 683 were excused from service, citing such things as financial hardship, child care or health issues.

Case to resume Monday

On Monday, the case is expected to resume when lawyers from the two sides begin questioning potential jurors individually. The grilling is expected to include questions about whether they could vote to impose the death penalty, their views on Peterson and how closely they've followed the highly publicized case.

Peterson, 31, is charged with murdering his 27-year-old wife, Laci, and the fetus she was carrying. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

In another arena, the state Supreme Court turned down a request Wednesday by Court TV and other cable and broadcast networks to allow cameras into the trial.

The networks appealed a Feb. 2 decision by Judge Alfred Delucchi to exclude television and still photo coverage. Delucchi said cameras would make jurors and witnesses "antsy'' and would interfere with the orderly conduct of the trial. The prosecution and defense both opposed camera coverage.

Court papers

In papers filed with the state's high court, attorneys for the networks said that Delucchi's concerns were unfounded and that his decision .......

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Ping others to view too! Been busy at work, and just haven't read or heard much on the trial coverage... Getting tuff to find news on this case until maybe once it starts..

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