Posted on 07/21/2004 5:51:54 AM PDT by runningbear
Former Sf Da Offers Comments On Peterson Trial
12:00 pm PT, Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004 Former Sf Da Offers Comments On Peterson Trial
REDWOOD CITY, CA - Former San Francisco District Attorney Terrance Hallinan said today that prosecutors in the Scott Peterson double murder trial may have been underestimated for the way they have been presenting their case.
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Hallinan sat in on the high-profile case for the first time and said that in a circumstantial evidence case, prosecutors Rick Distaso and Dave Harris have to present a massive amount of evidence.
'Circumstantial evidence cases, as you know, are like filling a proverbial glass of water one drop at a time,' Hallinan said.
'They're also deceiving, as they go along it may seem that the prosecution is not really getting to anything essential but then when they sum it all up and put it together it can be an amazing amount of coincidences.'
A high-profile trial, such as Peterson's, almost demands that a district attorney closely supervise his trial prosecutors, according to Hallinan, who successfully supervised the prosecution of the notorious 'dog mauling' trial of Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel.
'I think it's helpful that the district attorney in a high-profile case be present at least some of the time to keep it on an even keel,' Hallinan said.
Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton has only attended the Peterson trial once and appeared to fall asleep in court during part of that morning.
Inside the courtroom this morning, defense attorney Mark Geragos continued questioning Modest police Detective Ray Coyle about a list of more than 300 parolees and registered sex offenders that investigators talked to following the Dec. 24, 2002 disappearance of Laci Peterson.
'It was sort of like round up the usual suspects, it was a starting point,' Coyle said. 'We really had not a lot to go on in the beginning.'..........
NURSERY TALE A FAIRY TALE: LACI COP
NURSERY TALE A FAIRY TALE: LACI COP
By HOWARD BREUER
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July 21, 2004 -- REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Three weeks after he told TV personality Diane Sawyer he couldn't bring himself to enter his unborn son's nursery, cops discovered Scott Peterson had turned the room into a storage area, a detective testified yesterday. "The door is closed until there is someone to go in there," Peterson told Sawyer a month after his pregnant wife Laci's Dec. 24, 2002 disappearance.
But when Modesto detectives served a search warrant on the house on Feb. 18, 2003, Conner Peterson's once-sparsely furnished nursery was cluttered with furniture, Modesto police Detective Darren Ruskamp told the jury on Day 26 of Peterson's double-murder trial.
"Now you could only enter the nursery a few feet before you were stopped by rows of office-type chairs," Ruskamp recalled. .......
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Peterson's other 'other woman' didn't know he was married either
Amber Frey wasn't Scott Peterson's only mistress, according to police reports.
(Court TV) — Scott Peterson's family-man image was marred when investigators discovered weeks after his pregnant wife disappeared that he was cheating on her with massage therapist Amber Frey.
But according to an exclusive document obtained by Court TV, Peterson two-timed his wife Laci while they were still newlyweds, and told his mistress that he did not want children because they would ruin his "lifestyle."
"Before there was Amber, there was another 'other' woman," Court TV's Catherine Crier reported Tuesday.
Just a year into his marriage, Peterson embarked on a serious five-month affair with a woman named Janet, who, like Frey, believed her new boyfriend was single, according to the document.
Story continues .........
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Update: Detective Discusses Peterson Wedding Album
5:06 pm PT, Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004
Update: Detective Discusses Peterson Wedding Album
REDWOOD CITY, CA - A Modesto police detective testified today in the Scott Peterson double murder trial that a number of suspicious stains found in Laci Peterson's sport utility vehicle tested negative for blood.
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Detective Richard House spent much of this afternoon on the witness stand discussing his participation in a number of searches of the Peterson home, Scott Peterson's pickup truck, Laci Peterson's Land Rover, Scott Peterson's warehouse and a storage locker he rented after cleaning out his warehouse.
House testified that he cut a piece of fabric from the Land Rover's roof that had a suspicious stain on it and took swabs of several more stains during the search of the couple's vehicles.
Peterson's lawyer, Mark Geragos, asked House whether the roof stain tested positive for blood.
'It's my understanding that it tested negative,' House said.
All of the other stains from the Land Rover also tested.........
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Prosecution returns to affair, attack on Peterson's character
By Brian Skoloff
ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:25 p.m. July 20, 2004
REDWOOD CITY – Prosecutors in Scott Peterson's murder trial returned to familiar territory Tuesday, portraying the former fertilizer salesman as a lying philanderer who didn't act the part of a grieving husband after his pregnant wife vanished.
Modesto police Detective Richard House testified that Peterson opened a private mailbox on Dec. 23, 2002, a day before he reported his wife missing. House said that on Jan. 9, 2003, Peterson received a letter to the mailbox from his mistress, Amber Frey. Prosecutors allege the affair with Frey was the motive for Laci Peterson's murder.
House did not reveal the letter's contents and prosecutor Dave Harris moved on to another topic.
Harris then appeared to attack Peterson's character, implying that he intended to throw out a photo album with his wedding pictures less than two months after Laci vanished.
House testified that Peterson rented a storage unit that was packed with miscellaneous items when police served a search warrant there on Feb. 18. ........
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Detectives discuss Peterson's behavior, wedding photos
Article Last Updated: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 - 3:38:11 AM PST
Detectives discuss Peterson's behavior, wedding photos
By Jason Dearen, STAFF WRITER
REDWOOD CITY -- A Modesto detective found wedding photographs of Scott and Laci Peterson stuffed in a wastebasket in a storage facility, and Peterson had turned his future baby's nursery into a storage room, according to testimony Tuesday in his double-murder trial.
Displaying a picture of a wastebasket stuffed full of white paper and envelopes, Senior Deputy District Attorney David Harris asked a detective what else he found.
"Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson are in some of the photos. It appears to be their wedding," said Modesto Police Detective Richard House, one of many detectives who searched Peterson's warehouse and residence.
House and other detectives took the stand Tuesday as the prosecution switched from minute details of the police investigation to describing what they thought was suspicious behavior in the months after Laci Peterson's disappearance.
But defense attorney Mark Geragos explained away Harris' assertions, and charged prosecutors with misstating the facts. Rising from his table to begin cross-examination of House, Geragos laughed and shook his head as he launched into his verbal assault.
"Are you implying this was in the trash?" he said, pointing to the wastebasket photo. "No," House replied quietly. The storage facility where the photos were found was loaded full of items moved from Peterson's recently vacated warehouse.
"It looked like the items were taken and put into some kind of receptacle in order to store them?" Geragos asked. House agreed, saying he never said the wedding photos were thrown into the garbage.
With their own witness now disagreeing ........
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ALERT:
Utah Police Search For Missing Pregnant Woman
Utah Police Search For Missing Pregnant Woman
Lori Hacking
In a case reminiscent of the disappearance of Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old pregnant woman vanished during her daily morning jog, and distraught family and friends turned out Tuesday to search for her.
Lori Kay Hacking, who is five weeks pregnant, went out about 5:30 a.m. Monday, heading from her Salt Lake City home to nearby City Creek Canyon and Memory Grove park for a run.
After she did not show up later for her job at Wells Fargo Bank, her husband, Mark Hacking, called police at 10:49 a.m., Detective Dwayne Baird said.
"She never made it in this morning and I panicked," a tearful and visibly shaken Mark Hacking told reporters. "I called the police. I raced over here and found her car."
Her silver Chevrolet sedan was still parked near the front gates of Memory Grove.
Lori and Mark Hacking had just learned Thursday that she was five weeks pregnant. They have been married five years.
Police said they've interviewed Mark extensively and there has been no indication of any marital problems.
"It's important that he be cleared of any suspicion..........
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(Excerpt) Read more at benicianews.com ...
A missing person Alert!!!!
Pinging.......
Pinging.......
Another blow to prosecution
By JOHN COTÉ
and GARTH STAPLEY
BEE STAFF WRITERS
Last Updated: July 21, 2004, 05:18:52 AM PDT
REDWOOD CITY -- Scott Peterson rented a mailbox the day before his wife disappeared and used it to receive at least one letter from his then-girlfriend, a detective testified Tuesday at Peterson's murder trial.
Police also found some of Peterson's wedding pictures in a wastebasket at a storage unit less than two months after his wife disappeared, Modesto police Detective Richard House testified.
But the testimony -- initially suggesting a husband eager to leave behind married life -- turned into a blow to the prosecution's credibility, legal observers said.
After prosecutor Dave Harris' questioning appeared to suggest that Peterson was throwing out the photos, House testified that that wasn't his interpretation.
"It didn't look like anybody was throwing away the photos?" Peterson's attorney Mark Geragos asked moments into cross-examination.
"I didn't think so," House replied.
The photos were found in an office-type trash can filled with documents, including at least two $1,500 invoices for Peterson's business, according to House's testimony ........
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Update on my story of the San Joaquin River fire:
Wildfire brought under control
They found her body April 14. Yet, as early as February at least, the nursery was no longer a nursery.
Are you saying, April is time enough from grieving? Or, scotty is a bad hombre? ;o)
I pinged the crew to the thread about Lori...
Did you see on Greta when Lori's father-in-law stated that his son NEVER goes fishing alone???
Probably afraid that his son will be labeled because of the Peterson case.....
"It didn't look like anybody was throwing away the photos?"
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Does anyone out there keep their family photo's in a trash can in a storage building? I don't. I keep my precious family photo's in an album in a chest in my home. In fact, I live in an area that's subject to hurricanes. If ever I have to evacuate my photo's come with me.
I'm saying that Scott changed the nursery BEFORE they found the bodies, yet he was still advertising "Find Laci and Connor".
The prosecution is screwing this case up , if that man walks it will be a travesty of justice
Michael Peterson's North Carolina trial documentary will be shown on ABC Thursday night, 9 pm. I can't remember where I saw that information, but I'm sure trial junkies can check local schedules.
This is the film made by the French documentary crew, before and during the trial.
When I saw the news of this new missing mother-to-be, my first thought was, look at the hubby. After all, a disgruntled hubby might reason, it looks like Scott is getting away with it...
(so far, anyway. I hope the prosecuture steps it up a little.)
Okay... I read your point.. Thanks for clarifying... ;o)
I believe sometime in the next few court hearing days, there will be no court in session? SO,I think Geragos is doing all he can to imprint stuff onto the jurors minds during the non hearing days. Also, did you read on the Heather's blog in ABC link, that Scotty is in full control of how his defense/defense attorneys presenting the trial questions/people? VERY INTERESTING!
ditto.. but we are mostly hearing stuff from the pundits, not what is actual on the transcripts.
Bump
The reporterette said that she has never seen the Pros. attny's speak to each other. They don't even leave together, or ever have been seen conferring at the table.
I also observed on Larry King last night, that the entire panel was mocking Nancy Grace pretty bad. I think she wanted to hit King at one point. It has to be so frustrating !!
Doesn't it seem like every thing right is wrong and everything wrong is right ? grrrrr!!
Heather's Blog ??????
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