Sun 11 Jul 2004
Posted on 07/12/2004 5:39:31 AM PDT by runningbear
‘No Joy in Our Lives’
Peterson's Parents Speak Out on Son's Murder Trial
July 9, 2004 — A year and a half ago Lee and Jackie Peterson were eagerly awaiting the birth of their grandson. Today, they say, there is no joy in their lives.
Watch Barbara Walters' full report tonight on 20/20 at 10 p.m.
Their son Scott is on trial, accused of the savage murder of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, a baby they planned to name Conner.
Lee and Jackie Peterson tell 20/20's Barbara Walters they are convinced of their son's innocence. But as the case unfolds in a Redwood City, Calif., courthouse, the Petersons must reconcile two versions of their son: one, a wrongly accused husband who grieves for his murdered wife and unborn son, and the other, an adulterer turned cold-blooded monster. ........
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Peterson Trial Enters 7th Week
Jurors in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial have had more time outside the courtroom than in it recently to mull the prosecution's claims that the former fertilizer salesman killed his pregnant wife.
SLIDESHOW: Peterson Case Images
Heather's Trial Notes
The case resumes today following a four-day weekend -- the beginning of its seventh week, one that could see the most-anticipated witness called to the stand.
Prosecutors are still making their case that Peterson killed his wife in their Modesto home on or around Dec. 24, 2002, trucked the body to San Francisco Bay in a large tool box and plunged it overboard from a small boat.
His alleged motive: an affair with massage therapist Amber Frey.
Frey, who began cooperating with authorities soon after Laci Peterson was reported missing, could testify this week. Though a judge has imposed a gag order, preventing attorneys from discussing who will be called, court officials recently advised media about special procedures for when Frey testifies. .........
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Phone records raise queries
By JOHN COTÉ and GARTH STAPLEY
BEE STAFF WRITERS
Last Updated: July 10, 2004, 07:04:26 AM PDT
Scott Peterson's girlfriend called a Fresno police homicide detective's home in the days before and after Peterson's wife disappeared, partial cell phone records show.
Detective Richard Byrd's name surfaced in Peterson's double-murder trial during questioning about when Amber Frey called Modesto police about her relationship with Peterson and her whereabouts the day that Laci Peterson was reported missing.
Frey placed an almost hourlong call to Byrd's home the night of Dec. 21, 2002 -- three days before Peterson was reported missing, according to the phone records.
The next two calls from Frey's cell phone were to Scott Peterson the next morning, the documents show.
Frey called Byrd's home at least three times, for a total of 84 minutes, from Dec. 21, 2002, to Jan. 2, 2003, the records show. A 26-minute call from Frey's cell phone to Byrd's home took place the evening of Jan. 1, 2003 -- two days after Frey reportedly became aware that Peterson was married and his wife was missing.
Byrd declined to comment on the phone records, Frey's calls or the nature of their relationship.........
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THE PETERSON TRIAL
Prosecution faulted by observers in court
Defense seems to be scoring points during D.A.'s time
Harriet Chiang, Chronicle Legal Affairs Writer
Sunday, July 11, 2004
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Is Scott Peterson's defense team that good? Or are the prosecutors just not up to snuff?
That's what veteran trial lawyers are mulling over as they watch prosecutors try to convince a jury in Redwood City that Peterson is guilty of double murder.
After all, legal experts say, this is the prosecution's chance to bring out its most incriminating evidence, to build a rock-solid case against the Modesto fertilizer salesman who is accused of the 2002 slaying of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son.
But after five weeks of testimony, Mark Geragos, Peterson's noted defense attorney, instead seems be scoring one point after another, experts say.
During intense cross-examinations, Geragos has been able to produce evidence supporting his version of the facts, hammer away at the credibility of prosecution witnesses and even assume control of the courtroom, according to lawyers who have been observing the trial from the gallery of the Redwood City courtroom.......
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For all out missed this ping over the weekend
Sun 11 Jul 2004
Double act: Experts believe Senator John Edwards, right, brings real strengths to John Kerry’s Democratic ticket. He is an attractive figure who may help Kerry appeal to centrist voters in the presidential quest.
Picture: Justin Sullivan/ Getty Images
Dream team ready for Bush
ALEX MASSIE IN WASHINGTON
BATTLE is now officially joined. John Kerry’s selection of John Edwards as his running mate completes the rival tickets for this year’s presidential election and allows the campaign to start in full-blooded earnest.
Already Kerry’s choice is reaping rewards. Edwards, whose sunny, optimistic populism appealed to independent and moderate voters during the primary season, fills in some of the blanks in Kerry’s political curriculum vitae.
Where Kerry is a son of privilege, Edwards is self-made and his southern charm neatly balances Kerry’s New England and mildly aristocratic appearance while also giving the ticket a geographic spread that makes it seem as though it is appealing to all America.
On the stump, too, it is merely a small exaggeration to argue that in terms of eloquence Edwards is to Kerry as Tony Blair is to George W Bush.
An initial, post-announcement, CBS poll gave Kerry a four-point boost but that may only be the beginning of the good news for the Democrat challenger.
Perhaps in an effort to shake voters out of complacency, Bush’s own campaign strategists said they expect Kerry to have a 15-point lead by the end of the month, boosted as he will be by the acres of publicity Edwards has brought and, more importantly, by the party’s convention...........
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Nancy had one of the forensic MD's on. Dr. Baden, I think. He was all excited, said he'd heard something new from "the famous pathologist, Dr. Vincent DiMaio". (I didn't know DiMaio was so big, that's great, why doesn't the prosecution GET HIM?) Baden said, "there was meconium in the baby's.... digestive canal." (He was about to say "rectum", I guess, but thought better of it.)
Of course, WE already knew that, thanks to you and Jackie, and whoever else told us about that GREAT sequence regarding how the baby was NOT born.
Anyway, I wish Nancy had let Baden talk more; instead, she was making him digress and explain what meconium was, blah blah blah. But the upshot was, Baden said that the defense would never be able to prove or seriously suggest that the baby came out of the womb before he was killed.
Nancy then mentioned the possibility that someone cut the baby out. She didn't mention what you all said, about how the person would've had to reach down under the pants in order to do this. However, she debunked that ridiculous idea by pointing out that that meant the crooks had taken the baby out of Laci to... what? Raise him? No. Sell him on the black market? No. Hold him for ransom? Nope. Instead, she said, they just inconvenienced themselves by forcing themselves to have to make a second trip back to the Bay to dispose of the baby--after they'd already thrown Laci's poor abused body into the Bay.
Ridiculous.
Nancy thought the video of the still house, with the lamps on (it was taken at night, looking into the windows) was poignant. She said Sharon looked pale and sad while watching. Meanwhile, she said, Scott and Pickle-Nose sat back as though they were in recliners watching a game. Scott was entirely unmoved by the footage of the cozy-looking home that he will never go back to.
To me, the whole thing about the video, or a large part of it, was that MCKENZIE WAS BARKING AT THE PHOTOGRAPHER NON-STOP. Hello? Does anyone doubt now that this dog would make a fuss if someone grabbed Laci away from him?
And of course the video showed that there was not a trace of any break-in activity.
I respectfully, but emphatically, disagree.
I believe his task is to SIFT the facts and then construct an eminently plausible and believable picture for the jury.
It is frustrating not to be able to witness the trial, but the impression one gets is that the jury is being presented (by the PA!) with a blizzard of unconnected facts that can only result in confusion and uncertainty.
lol.... I watched her last night....Oh my, dating a detective, if Amber did? What a relationship! Oh my! Greta..... ;o)
LOL. But, you know, RB, I've been thinking about this. If Amber had any real relationship--I mean, love/sex relationship with this detective, anything that was going anywhere--would she have said to him, "Hey, could you check out a guy I'm dating, I want to see if he's married?"
I mean, if she was really considering both this Byrd, and Scott, as her Real Prince Charming, I wouldn't think she would be bringing up one of them to the other. Men have this thing, they kind of like to think they are the only one...
yep.... and you know, LEO's know in many cases before they get involve with someone, they do a mini check and wants....(enough to were they fall into the guidelines of privacy invasion issues) they don't want to be caught with their pants down (so to speak), and media take wind of a bad sheep thingy.... Many PD department heads will make sure those who wonder off will reep in their reviews or actions.
If Amber had any real relationship--I mean, love/sex relationship with this detective, anything that was going anywhere...
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Maybe this was one of others that she had on a back burner for some reason (maybe he's married). The fact that she turned to him suggests that she trusts him to some extent. I was wondering how Amber could have sent a card or letter to Snott's house with Amber thinking that Snott lived in Sacramento or SanDiego? Now, I'm thinking that Byrd could have run Snott's vehicle license plate through NCIC and found Snott's Modesto address. Amber could have sent one of her X-mas cards to the Covena address. Laci could have intercepted it.
Yes, perhaps back burner.
If he was not married, I see nothing wrong with Amber having spent time with this man while she was also dating Scott. Amber was single. And Amber was not exactly SCOTT'S one-and-only!
In fact, even if this Byrd was married, seems to me she could have him for a friend, and that wouldn't even be thought improper in a state other than California! A friend is a friend. Otherwise, we'd be living the way they live in the middle east!
Very good thought about the license plate! You betcha, it would've taken him all of a minute to run that plate and get the real home address.
As exciting as it would be to find out that Amber had then sent something to Scott's house, I kind of don't think she did. She'd only known him for a month. I think she was playing it cool, just checking him out. Surely a player like Amber would know that if she sent something to the house, that might make Scott so mad at HER that he'd... I dunno... kill her, or something! (Or at least break off his relationship with her!)
I didn't think anyone had officially said anything definite about Amber's job. Thanks for verifying that.
A Joke to brighten your day...
*****
A housewife takes a lover during the day, while her husband is at work. Unbeknown to her, her 9 year old son was hiding in the closet. Her husband came home unexpectedly, so she hid her lover in the closet. The boy now has company.
Boy: "Dark in here."
Man: "Yes it is."
Boy: "I have a baseball."
Man: "That's nice."
Boy: "Want to buy it?"
Man: "No, thanks."
Boy: "My dad's outside."
Man: "OK, how much?"
Boy: "$250."
In the next few weeks, it happens again that the boy and the mom's lover are in the closet together.
Boy: "Dark in here."
Man: "Yes, it is."
Boy: "I have a baseball glove."
Man: "How much?"
Boy: "$750." Man: "Fine"
A few days later, the father says to the boy, "Grab your glove. Let's go outside and toss the baseball." The boy says, "I can't. I sold them." The father asks, "How much did you sell them for?" The son says, "$1,000." The father says, "That's terrible to overcharge your friends like that. That is way more than those two things cost. I'm going to take you to church and make you confess." They go to church and the father alerts the priest, and makes the little boy sit in the confession booth and closes the door.
The boy says, "Dark in here."
The priest says, "Don't start that sh*t again............."
Juzcuz!
That was hilarious!! I think I'll tell that one to Father Patrick!
No, wait, I better not! He might think it's a come-on!
Ok So--Lets suppose...
Dec. 21st Amber contacts Byrd. Byrd runs a check and tells Amber Snott's Modesto Address.
Dec.22ndAM Amber decides to Fed-Ex a X-Mas photo to Snott so he'll have her pic. before he leaves for Maine the next day.. They talk on the phone. She acts 'ditsy' and tells Snott she found 'this other address' and mistakenly Fed-Ex'ed her photo there (Modesto). Amber plays it off as well so I got the wrong address it will be returned to me. Scott plays it cool too.
Meantime Snott Panicks Dec. 23rdAM Snott comes home (Covena) briefly @10:00 to pick up a Fed-Ex. (He misses it or Snott thinks it never arrived) Three hours later, Snott calls Amber from an airport in Sacramento, telling her he is on his way to Kennebunkport, Maine. He travels all the way to Sacramento to call Amber, to reinforce the LIE that he lives in Sacramento, Not knowing for sure that she was on to him. He could have used one of his numerous cell phones to call her. Instead, he went out of his way to use a phone with a Sacramento AC for a reason..
In the mean time. Laci retrieves the package before Snott gets back and doesn't mention it to Scott all day even at Salon. Later (after 8:30 PM on the 23rd) Laci opens it and the S*** hit the fan..
This could have happened...
I think it could easily have happened that way.
But even more: Scott was talking to Amber so much, even in Carmel, and one wonders if Laci noticed his phone calls while there. I mean, maybe it was there that she first noticed that he might be cheating.
The maid did say Scott came "back" to the house at 10 a.m. on the 23rd, to get a Fed Ex. I assumed he had successfully gotten it... ? If he hadn't gotten it at that time, but knew that Amber had sent this "bomb" to Modesto, wouldn't he have stayed glued to the house, so he could quickly intercept it? ("Just a customer sending something, dear.")
LOL! Oh, no...not the bluh spattr!!
I've got some catching up to do.
wouldn't he have stayed glued to the house, so he could quickly intercept it?
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Your right he would have. Unless, he was unsure of the package or thought it was more important to be in Sacramento. There was a Fed-Ex delivered on the 24th as well.
Fed-Ex delivered on the 24th as well.
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Scratch that-- I don't remember a Fed-Ex on the 24th..
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