Steve Jacobson, right, oversaw wiretaps placed on Scott Peterson's phones after his pregnant wife disappeared
Posted on 08/27/2004 5:37:28 AM PDT by runningbear
Scott Peterson's lawyer strives to throw doubt on phone evidence
Steve Jacobson, right, oversaw wiretaps placed on Scott Peterson's phones after his pregnant wife disappeared
By Harriet Ryan
Court TV
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Scott Peterson's defense attorney tried to undermine damaging phone evidence Thursday with a painstaking cross-examination of the investigator who supervised police wiretaps on the double-murder suspect's lines.
In a dry, often tedious cross-examination involving dozens of complex phone records, lawyer Mark Geragos implied that the investigator had overlooked evidence that Peterson quickly pursued a potential sighting of his missing wife in Washington.
Testifying for prosecutors Wednesday, investigator Steven Jacobson of the Stanislaus County Drug Enforcement Unit told jurors records indicate Peterson waited 13 hours before calling authorities in Longview, Wash., and another four days before contacting the investigating detective.
At the time, Peterson told his family and friends he was in close touch with authorities and was eager to find out if the woman spotted in a convenience store was his wife. Prosecutors argue that he had no real interest in the tip because he knew his 27-year-old spouse, Laci, was already dead.
Story continues
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Testimony in Scott Peterson (news - web sites)'s murder trial returned to what investigators found in his computers as prosecutors try to prove Peterson researched the San Francisco Bay before dumping his pregnant wife's body there.
Lydell Wall of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department testified in early August about search engine results on hard drives from computers seized from Peterson's home and office. On Thursday, he continued testifying that Peterson searched sales ads for used boats on Dec. 7-8, 2002, just weeks before his wife vanished. Peterson also searched Web sites for fishing information, currents in San Francisco Bay and details on boat ramps in the area. .........
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Lies, lies and more lies on new Peterson phone tapes
By Tim Hay, STAFF WRITER
REDWOOD CITY -- It was as if Scott Peterson would tell a lie even when it was easier to tell the truth.
In the weeks following his pregnant wife's disapperance, he lied to friends, relatives and his girlfriend about where he was, what he was doing, and how involved he was in the search for Laci.
Peterson's repeated deceptions were revealed Wednesday, as recordings from Peterson's bugged cell phone were played for the first time to the jury in his double murder trial.
"Where are you?" his mother asked innocently in a January 11, 2002 phone conversation........
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Tapes Show Peterson Lied To Parents About Location Of Calls
Tapes Show Peterson Lied To Parents About Location Of Calls
Investigator Says Frey Was Suspect At One Time
POSTED: 12:38 pm PDT August 25, 2004
UPDATED: 7:47 pm PDT August 25, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Jurors heard new audiotapes in the Scott Peterson double-murder case Wednesday. They were from police wiretaps and showed that he lied to more than just his former mistress, Amber Frey.
While Frey was secretly taping her former boyfriend, Modesto police investigators were secretly taping her.
Steve Jacobson ran the wiretap operation on Peterson's phones. Under defense questioning, Jacobson confirmed that he argued that Frey was a potential suspect, that Peterson could not have acted alone and that Frey may not have been cooperating with investigators -- all to prove to a judge he needed the wiretap evidence. Frey was later cleared as a suspect.
Prosecutors made some key points as well, starting with a conversation between Peterson and his mother-in-law, Sharon Rocha.
Sharon Rocha: "Where are you headed now?"
Scott Peterson: "Well, I'm actually down in Bakersfield."
Sharon Rocha: "Oh, are you? OK."
Scott Peterson: "Yeah, I had to finish up some work stuff here today, and I'm, we're just getting done.".....
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Scott's web of deception
Phone-tap tapes packed with lies
BY MARY PAPENFUSS
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Scott Peterson chuckled at tips about his missing wife, lied constantly and tried sell his fully furnished home, bombshell tapes played in court yesterday revealed.
The tapes are the latest round of phone-tap recordings played in his double-murder trial, and offered yet another glimpse at the damning web of deception spun by the fibbing fertilizer salesman around Laci Peterson's disappearance.
"These tapes are in many ways more powerful than the Amber Frey tapes,"former San Mateo County prosecutor Chuck Smith said a day after testimony from Peterson's mistress ended. "I can't think of any innocent explanation for Scott's lies and actions."
In one tape, Peterson chuckles as he listens to a cell phone message from his mother, Jackie, advising him to jet off to Washington State to check a report Laci had been seen there. Prosecutors contend he ignored the tip because he knew Laci was dead.........
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Frey done; Peterson trial gets technical
Defense questions experts on computer systems, cell phone technology and wiretapping
By Tim Hay, STAFF WRITER
REDWOOD CITY -- The departure of Amber Frey from the witness stand has left a black hole of boredom in the Scott Peter- son murder trial, and jurors face hours of arcane technical evidence.
Now it is the charismatic defense lawyer Mark Geragos, rather than the relatively staid prosecutor Rick Distaso, who is struggling to keep the jury awake.
On Wednesday and Thursday, both sides thoroughly questioned experts on computer systems, cell phone technology and wiretapping.
After lunch Thursday, several jurors began watching the clock. One woman stifled her yawns, while a male juror didn't bother to cover his mouth. ........
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Damage control for the defense
REDWOOD CITY -- Scott Peterson's defense team went into damage-control mode Thursday, trying to evoke sympathy for the Modesto man because of the intense scrutiny he faced in the weeks after his pregnant wife, Laci, vanished.
Undercover agents spied on Peterson in a restaurant, followed his car and listened to his telephone conversations, his attorney emphasized while questioning Steve Jacobson, an investigator for the Stanislaus County district attorney's office.
Reporters hounded Peterson, acknowledged Jacobson, who supervised covert taping of Peterson's phone calls.
Small wonder Peterson seemed evasive, erased phone messages partway through and lied when asked where he was, defense lawyer Mark Geragos suggested.........
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Laci's mom pleads for reimbursement
SACRAMENTO -- Laci Peterson's mother is urging state lawmakers to approve a financial bailout of the double-murder trial and police investigation into her daughter's disappearance.
Sharon Rocha, in a letter to lawmakers, said she is thankful for the multimillion-dollar case police and prosecutors have built against Scott Peterson, but she fears that local law enforcement agency coffers have been drained, jeopardizing the ability to pursue other criminals.
"Every family, every person deserves an equal opportunity to receive the best help and prosecution that our law enforcement agencies can provide," she wrote. "This help and protection should not be limited due to lack of financial resources available."
The Legislature -- scheduled to adjourn tonight -- is weighing a proposal to reimburse local agencies for 100 percent of their costs, other than normal salaries, in the Peterson case.......
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For those who think like this writer!
In Peterson trial, people need to wake up and smell the froth on top of the coffee
By Susan Reinhardt, Columnist
Aug. 25, 2004 5:35 p.m.
Last night, I was flipping channels trying to dig my way out of the swamp of blather and had two choices. Swift Boat Kerry or the Slow Boat Peterson trial.
Don't the talking heads have anything else to cover? Fox News and CNN and their crew of same old experts took a paddle and whipped the topic to froth. MSNBC's Dan Abrams glows positively euphoric over the case as does Fox's Shepard Smith whose brow won't move it's so pumped with Botox.
It seems the news channels and on-camera yakkers are completely obsessed with the Scott Peterson case and his double-murder trial that's inched along slower than a tranquilized snail.
All I want to know is where is common sense? The courtroom stage of defense lawyers and prosecutors has become a joke in tedium. Everyone involved has an attorney and spokesperson.
"Was it true," asks Lawyer ..........
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Peterson defense faces challenge
After police arrested Scott Peterson in San Diego County in April 2003, an angrymob greeted him back in Modesto, carrying signs accusing the fertilizer salesman of killing his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn child.
During the three-and-a-half months between Laci's disappearance on Christmas Eve 2002 and the grisly discovery of the bodies on the shores of San Francisco Bay, a Fresno massage therapist and single mother named Amber Frey held a press conference, telling the world about her affair with Peterson.
Almost overnight, Peterson became public enemy No. 1; his mugshot graced the covers of supermarket tabloids, People magazine and countless television news broadcasts. Even Peterson'sdefense attorney, Mark Geragos, in an interview with CNN's Larry King before taking Peterson's case, said, "It's a damning circum-stantial case. The man is a sociopath if he did this crime." .......
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PINGING........
Thank you!
PINGING........
PINGING........
Court cases have become a game of chess between lawyers...and they can cheat.
Until we, the jurors, put reason back into the equation, we're in trouble.
Bizarro World.
might be a long time until we get rid of the mindset of 60's era reasoning.
welcome....... just in time for the weekend.... ;o)
Agreed. I suspect the problem has a lot to do with voir dire.
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/18969.htm
Liar Scott Snickered in Delight
In case you missed this!..yesterday's but good article...;)
Welcome back! I see your "hooked" :)
Been a wild on the go week.
We appreciate your getting us started every morning when the trial is on!
Why would you say that? There's nothing wrong with the way voir dire is currently conducted--unless prospective jurors lie when being questioned. Please explain your comment.
Hee hee hee... you are a very perceptive poster, bonfire.
I see my hooked too! :-)
Actually, I saw the thread title and just wanted to find out how long it would take devil_anse to jump on me. That's not to say I'm not interested in crime. I limit myself to a select few old cases, particularly the similarities between Ted Kaczynski and San Francisco's Zodiac Killer of ca. 1969--two fascinating birds of a feather who may or may not be related.
I'm not supposed to "jump on" someone who uses the C-word (Clinton) in reference to me?
Hey Jackie, try this on for size. It has now been shown that Scott had a habit of erasing phone messages while going through them. He even erased some w/o waiting to hear the entire thing.
So what about his return home on the 24th? If I returned home and began wondering where my spouse was, I think I might listen to the phone answering machine. Also, might one not punch redial on the phone, to see who was the last person their spouse called? Maybe she is with that person? And even punch *69, to see the last person who called HER? Who might have invited her out somewhere? Who could tell you when they talked to her?
So, wouldn't Scott at least have checked the answering machine? If he did check it, wouldn't he have DELETED HIS MESSAGE TO LACI, b/c he was back home, and he already knew what his message said, anyway?
And if he didn't delete it, why? To keep it on the phone so suspicious persons would later see how he tenderly called his wife to tell her he was on his way home from Berkeley, and called her "Beautiful", etc., etc.?
http://www.courttv.com/trials/peterson/docs/wiretap_vm0203a.html
Above is the very short transcript of Scott talking to himself as he plays part of another msg from Rita Cosby, b/f deleting the msg.
As he begins, he says, "It's tough to come back now ha ha ha." What the heck does THAT mean??
Great thought there Dev, if you want to read some new stuff about Sharon questioning Snott about all this read the Feb 13 transcript. She grills him and is all over him like a cheap suit. He cant answer her directly and she is saying this is the first time she has been able to ask and she has to know from there he is full of it. When he talks to a friend, his speech is smooth, no stuttering so bear that in mind when reading his response to her questions. Hopefully CTV will cover all this in the next few days.
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