Peterson, lawyer talk for 5 hours Bail hearing scheduled for Tuesday is canceled at attorney's

The Modesto Bee and the Fresno Bee ^ | May 5, 2003, 3:25 AM) | Patick Giblin

[runningbear]

Peterson, lawyer talk for 5 hours
Bail hearing scheduled for Tuesday is canceled at attorney's request.

Peterson, lawyer talk for 5 hours
Bail hearing scheduled for Tuesday is canceled at attorney's request.

By Patrick Giblin
The Modesto Bee

(Published Monday, May 5, 2003, 3:25 AM)

MODESTO -- As thousands of people grieved Sunday for Laci Peterson and the child she had carried, the man accused of their murders spent the afternoon with his attorney just blocks away.

Scott Peterson met with Mark Geragos for more than five hours at Stanislaus County Jail, where Peterson has been held since his arrest last month.

Geragos arrived at the jail to meet with his client about 1:30 p.m., 90 minutes before the start of the public memorial service at First Baptist Church. At 6:30 p.m., the two still were meeting.

Peterson had inquired about jail policy for attending a funeral or memorial service but did not ask to go Sunday, said Kelly Huston, spokesman for the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department.

The service was televised live, but the room where Peterson and Geragos met did not have a television set, so Peterson did not watch the memorial service for his wife and son, Huston said.

When Peterson next goes to court, he will be dressed in a suit. Judge Al Girolami, noting that photographs of Peterson in the standard red jail-issued jumpsuit may be prejudicial to a potential jury, ruled Friday that the defendant can wear civilian clothes.

Peterson's parents, Lee and Jackie Peterson, returned to Modesto on Sunday. They checked into the Red Lion Hotel on Sunday night, a hotel employee said, and carried a suit bag. They did not respond to telephone messages left by The Modesto Bee.

A hearing originally scheduled for Tuesday to consider bail for Peterson was canceled at Geragos' request. The attorney said Friday that he had thousands of pages of documents to sift through to prepare for the bail hearing>

Tears, laughter for Laci Peterson
More than 2,000 mourners fill Modesto church for memorial service on what would have been Peterson's 28th birthday

Tears, laughter for Laci Peterson
More than 2,000 mourners fill Modesto church for memorial service on what would have been Peterson's 28th birthday.

By Doug Hoagland
The Fresno Bee
(Published Monday, May 5, 2003, 3:33 AM)

MODESTO -- On the date of Laci Peterson's birth, the people who loved her and strangers who bonded with her smiling face in pictures gathered to offer their goodbyes. Her brother said Peterson would not have wanted people to be sad.

More than 2,000 people came Sunday afternoon to First Baptist Church here for a memorial service on what would have been Peterson's 28th birthday.

"Today's a good day," said her older brother, Brent Rocha. "All of us are given the opportunity to come here and remember Laci and Conner."

Rocha recalled how Laci Peterson said three years ago at their grandmother's funeral: "When I die, I don't want people to be sad. I don't want people to be missing me. I want people to be happy."

So Rocha came to deliver that message: "She would want all of us to have happiness in our hearts for her."

Fighting to control his emotions, Rocha delivered one of many eloquent eulogies at Sunday's service. The crowd responded with tears, but also laughter at playful stories of Peterson's zestful life.

The service offered a thoughtful pause in a full-throttle story born in mystery -- where was Laci Peterson? -- that convulsed into a legal drama: Did Scott Peterson kill his pregnant wife and their unborn son, Conner?

Scott Peterson sat Sunday in a jail cell, only a few blocks from First Baptist Church. He has been charged with murdering Laci and Conner Peterson. Their bodies washed ashore from the San Francisco Bay in mid-April.

Scott Peterson has pleaded innocent.

On Sunday, Laci Peterson's family sat in a front-row pew, surrounded by bouquets of flowers. An arrangement of yellow tulips peeked above the rest.

Sharon Rocha, Laci Peterson's mother, did not speak publicly at the service. She sat quietly, wearing a white suit, her husband on one side, her son on the other.

When the choir of more than 100 delivered a musical rendition of the "Lord's Prayer," Sharon Rocha nodded her head, as if to affirm the words. Later, when Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" filled the room, Rocha leaned into her husband as he wrapped his arm around her.

Several speakers remembered Laci Peterson as a gust of enthusiasm. Brent Rocha called her "the glue" of the family, the vivacious little sister whom everyone loved to be with. Terri Western, a family friend, warmly described Peterson as a confident, nonstop talker who could be very loud and very much wanted to be a mother.

"It was as if she had waited her whole life to become a mommy," Western said, adding: "I never got to see our beautiful Laci holding Conner." That duality -- sweet memories punctuated by how it all ended -- wove its way through the service.

Addie Hansberry, a cousin, recalled how 5-year-old Laci took her brother's dare, shed her swimsuit and plunged into a swimming pool of guests at a family gathering. The audience laughed.

Silence gripped the crowd, however, when Hansberry talked of waking up angry one morning after Laci Peterson, eight months pregnant, was reported missing on Christmas Eve.

Hansberry said she had so many questions but no answers -- "no real answers."

No speaker mentioned Scott Peterson's name Sunday, and his photo did not appear in the video montage of Laci Peterson's life that included her in a white wedding gown.

As photos flashed on two video screens, the audience sat in darkness. People laughed at the image of a young Laci, her trademark smile missing one tooth. But sobs also came from the dark as other photos appeared to the accompaniment of "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan.

The photos traced a young life: Laci in pigtails and in a yellow sundress. Laci on a bicycle in front of the family Christmas tree. Teen-age Laci dressed for a formal dance. Laci in her high school cheerleading outfit. Laci in cap and gown. And finally, a photo of a pregnant Laci in red leaning back in a chair with her hands folded in her lap.

Peterson conferring as wife, unborn son mourned nearby

EXCERPTED:

Peterson conferring as wife, unborn son mourned nearby

By PATRICK GIBLIN
BEE STAFF WRITER

Published: May 5, 2003, 05:19:32 AM PDT

As thousands of people grieved for Laci Peterson and her unborn son Sunday, the man accused of their murders spent the afternoon conferring with his attorney several blocks away.

Scott Peterson met with Mark Geragos for more than five hours at Stanislaus

County Jail, where Peterson has been held since his arrest last month.

Geragos arrived at the jail to meet with his client about 1:30 p.m., 90 minutes before the start of the public memorial service at First Baptist Church. At 6:30 p.m., the two still were meeting.

Peterson had inquired about jail policy for attending a funeral or memorial but did not ask to go Sunday, said Kelly Huston, spokesman for the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department.

The service was televised live, but the room where Peterson and Geragos met did not have a TV set, so Peterson did not watch the memorial, Huston said.

Geragos will appear today in Stanislaus County Superior Court, where two hearings in the case are set for this morning -- both at 8:30:

Judge Al Girolami is scheduled to hear Geragos' argument that Girolami can't hear the criminal case when a previous related civil case was reassigned from him. In a case brought by The Bee last month, Judge Roger M. Beauchesne ordered search warrants in the investigation sealed until there was an arrest.

Beauchesne is set to consider a motion by two other newspapers to unseal the search and arrest warrants in the case.

Girolami originally was assigned The Bee's case but the issue was reassigned to Beauchesne. Girolami has been presiding over Peterson's criminal proceedings.

Geragos previously said that the search warrants, if unsealed, could hurt his client's chance for a fair trial.

"There is a legitimate issue as to whether or not this judge can hear this case," Geragos said Friday.

When Peterson next goes to court, he will be dressed in a suit. Girolami, noting that photographs of Peterson in the standard red jail-issued jumpsuit may be prejudicial to a potential jury, ruled Friday that Peterson can wear civilian clothes.

Peterson's parents, Lee and Jackie Peterson of San Diego, returned to Modesto on Sunday. They checked into the Red Lion Hotel on Sunday night, a hotel employee said, and carried a suit bag. They did not return telephone messages Sunday night.

If Peterson gets a suit, Geragos most likely will deliver it early this morning, Huston said.

"Obviously, the suit will be checked to make sure there's nothing in it," Huston said.

[runningbear]

Snip it:

Janet Lockwood of Clovis claimed a spot at the front of one line. Lockwood, 48, created a stir toward the end of the service when she stood in the balcony and briefly addressed the crowd. Public comments were not planned.

In remarks that lasted less than a minute, Lockwood told the audience that whoever took Laci Peterson would face God's judgment.

After the service, she said: "I said the right thing, but I understand the timing wasn't right." Lockwood added that she intended her comments to be comforting.

A few women criticized her as she stood among the departing crowd, and she tearfully asked for their forgiveness. Lockwood said she had asked God to forgive her.

[runningbear]

Pinging.....

[TommyDale]

For those outside North Carolina, we have another "Peterson Murder Case", now underway in the courtroom. Mike Peterson is accused of killing his wife after she was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their home. What makes the case interesting is that a female friend of Mike Peterson died years ago from a fall down the stairs. The authorities exhumed the body, and now a pathologist says it was murder, not accidental as previously noted.

[runningbear]

(I like this one from yesterday. one of many)

Defense Attorney Mark Geragos(L) gives prosecutors a glance during a court hearing in Modesto, May 2, 2003, as defendant Scott Lee Peterson looks on. Geragos, a high-profile criminal defense lawyer, was appointed on Friday to represent Peterson, who told a court last week he could not afford an attorney to defend himself against charges of murdering his wife Laci and their unborn child. Photo by Pool/Reuters

NY POST Cover page

LACI'S FAREWELL

MOTHER IN MOURNING: Sharon Rocha leaves yesterday for the memorial service for her slain daughter, Laci Peterson.
- AP

[runningbear]

Yes, Howlin provided links to that story... lots of legal stuff to that "Peterson" case... I read many of the links... wow....

[runningbear]

pinging ya....

[Merovingian]

Thanks for this, and ping.....

[runningbear]

LOL... it was scary at the moment...

[runningbear]

FROM COURT TV:

Memorial for Laci Peterson attracts thousands; husband, the suspect, barred

snip it:

After the final prayer, an elderly woman in a purple suit stood up and began shouting toward Laci's family.

"God will judge whoever took Laci and Connor from us," she said before her voice was drowned out by the final song, Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl."

In the long lines that snaked under ginkgo trees outside the church, there was whispered talk about the evidence against Peterson.

[runningbear]

you can watch it via the link I provided on Court TV web page....lol....

[Galtoid]

Poor little Conner is always referred to as the "unborn son." Why not say he was a "soon to be born" son?

[Velveeta]

Silver-tongued defense for Laci's husband
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32389

[runningbear]

had to print it...Barbra Simpson... she does some good pieces in journalist writings..

[Devil_Anse]

So what's the subject matter of Scott's hearing today? I forget. We know it's not about bail b/c they say Geragos has asked to continue the bail hearing.

As for this judge hearing later matters in the case, that reminds me of something. Around here we have a 2-tiered system in which one level of judge hears preliminary hearings, and another level of judge hears the trials of those same cases. Once a judge has heard a preliminary in a case, it is generally thought that he can't hear the trial. I think this is b/c the judge who hears the prelim necessarily must pronounce an opinion on the quantity of evidence presented to him at the prelim. So considering he has expressed this "opinion", he is sort of ruined for being an impartial judge at trial.

[RGSpincich]

SP/Geragos Meeting Transcript

G: Is anybody looking?
SP: You found them?
G: Yep. You're going to be fine.
SP: Can't believe you didn't bring them the first time.
G: Yeah, sorry. But I have them now and these hairclippers are going to save you. It may take a few hours but I give really good haircuts.

[Velveeta]

My favorite is Peggy Noonan, and Barbra Simpson has a similar straight-forward style.

[Velveeta]

"So what's the subject matter of Scott's hearing today?"

I think it's a hearing to check out the new suit. In addition they'll discuss the sealing/unsealing of the warrants.