Peterson family planned to keep some property

Scott Peterson's family had planned to voluntarily turn over only some of the items that his wife's family wanted from the couple's home.

Laci Peterson's family and friends acted first, though, and took what they wanted Friday from the Covena Avenue house -- over the Peterson family's objections.

Jackie Peterson, Scott's mother, expressed dismay: "Yesterday we see a coroner's report about a baby, and today we're talking about salt and pepper shakers," she said by telephone from her home in San Diego County.

In discussing the Rochas' request for property from the home, Peterson said some of the items, such as Laci's journals, could not be turned over.

"Scott didn't even know she had journals," Peterson said. "If she did, police have them."

Peterson said her son has a request, too: He wants his wife's wedding ring, another diamond ring that he bought her, and a few diamonds given to Laci by her grandmother. Peterson said the rings and gems had been taken to a jeweler for crafting into one ring.

"We want those," Peterson said. She said the Rochas picked them up from the jeweler.

The family had submitted a 22-point list of items sought from the house. Peterson said Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, later revised it to 16 points.

The Rochas still wanted the crib intended for Conner, the boy with whom Laci was pregnant at the time of her disappearance. And they wanted the rocking chair from the baby's room, too.

Earlier this week, family attorneys said the Rochas needed to "sit in Conner's room in the rocking chair Laci had purchased to rock him in, and just to have the opportunity to feel her presence."

Peterson said she and her family bought almost everything in the baby's room, including crib, rocking chair, clothes and toys -- all baby shower gifts. Scott wanted to keep the baby's things, his mother said.

SACRAMENTO — Over the weekend family and friends of murder victim Laci Peterson entered the home she once shared with Scott Peterson, setting off the alarm, and took some of Laci's things. Scott Peterson has been charged in the death of his wife and the couple's unborn child. He has pleaded innocent to the charges.

According to the Rocha family lawyer, Adam Stewart, the group of family members and friends took Laci's clothes, her cosmetic case, her journals, her wedding gown and other similar things. Stewart said that the Rocha family had been trying to get Laci's things that weren't related to the criminal case for the past two months.

Broadcast reports also showed them driving off with clothes and a rocking chair intended for baby Conner.

Stewart had this to say about the incident: "This is no longer a crime scene. There's no tape around the house. The D.A. and law enforcement have advised her she can retrieve these items."

The move sparked a confrontation between the lawyers representing Laci's family and a member of Scott Peterson's defense team.

A member of the defense team was at the house when items were removed, and complained to reporters that Laci Peterson's relatives had no right to enter the home.

The Petersons seem equally upset - telling a local newspaper they want Laci's family to return her wedding ring and other jewelry that Scott bought her.

With one set of parents trying to clear their son's name and the other desperate for reminders of the daughter they haven't even been able to bury.

By Harriet Ryan
Court TV.com
Monday, June 2, 2003 Posted: 4:22 PM EDT (2022 GMT)

(Court TV) -- A few days after he took Scott Peterson's case, defense lawyer Mark Geragos stood on the steps of the Stanislaus County courthouse surrounded by his new client's family and predicted public opinion of the murder suspect was about to change.

"I think it's only a matter of time before we're able to turn America's head around," Geragos told scores of reporters eager to gobble up any speck of information about Peterson and the killing of his pregnant wife, Laci, and unborn son.

At the time, Geragos' forecast seemed about as likely as June snow in Modesto. In the hot, dry California city and across the nation, Peterson was Public Enemy No. 1. When he was arrested, a throng of angry citizens greeted his arrival at the county jail with bloodthirsty chants and signs reading MURDERER. The front page of the New York Post showed Peterson in shackles beneath the headline "MONSTER IN CHAINS." And the California attorney general pronounced the case against Peterson "a slam dunk."

But in the 28 days since Geragos became Peterson's attorney, an improbable, but unmistakable shift in the public discussion of the crime has occurred. The question is no longer "How could he do it?" but "Did he do it?"

The change seems clearly the result of a series of press leaks -- some directly credited to the defense side and others to unspecified sources -- including speculation that Laci Peterson died at the hands of a Satanic cult and last Thursday's revelation by MSNBC that the coroner found a plastic tape "noose" around the neck of the Petersons' unborn son, Conner, when his body was found on the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay.

Geragos denied being the source of that leak and even volunteered to swear to it on the witness stand, but steamed prosecutors made clear they thought the defense was to blame. In court papers filed just hours after the report, prosecutors said the new information "skewed" toward Peterson's legal team and asked a judge to release the entire coroner's report publicly so "the media will see what the actual facts are."

Whoever the source, the report concerning the condition of baby Conner's body fit nicely with the Satanic cult theory of the murders advanced first through defense leaks and then openly by Geragos. About two weeks after the lawyer took over Peterson's case, NBC reported that the defense had information about cults operating in the Modesto area and speculated that Conner Peterson was cut from his mother's body during a Satanic ritual. Other reports citing defense sources indicated that when Peterson's body was recovered on the bay shoreline, it was mutilated in a manner consistent with ritual sacrifice, and still other outlets reported that the defense was chasing its own prime suspects, some apparently connected with a strange brown van and a suspicious man with 666 tattooed on his arm.

Although no one knows when Peterson's trial will begin, nor where it will be held -- the defense is expected to ask for a change of venue -- the leaks are likely the first effort to influence the panelists who will some day, in some courthouse, sit in judgment of Scott Peterson.

"There's been a concerted effort to try to change the hearts and minds of potential jurors," said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson. "The strategy is to create questions now and hope that it will translate into reasonable doubt later."

Not all legal experts agree on its wisdom, however. Miami jury consultant Sandy Marks, who worked for the defense in the trials of Timothy McVeigh and William Kennedy Smith, said that, while putting the defense story out in the public arena can be useful, timing the release of information is important.

"Jurors -- and people in general -- have a short memory. This will only be good for the next week or two. If he's got substantial stuff, why leak it now? Let's save it for right before trial," Marks said.

Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer Harland Braun, who initially represented Robert Blake, disagreed.

"If you've got anything, get it out there or you are going to lose the jury," said Braun, no stranger to defending clients by going on the offense. Long before Blake was arrested, Braun released documents and audiotapes portraying Blake's murdered wife as a conniving grifter. In defense polling done after he made the information public, 80 percent of those surveyed believed Blake guilty, but 90 percent had a negative opinion about his alleged victim, Braun said.

Putting the information out is essential, Braun said, because jurors consider public opinion along with the law and evidence as they deliberate, and few panelists want to buck conventional wisdom with their verdicts.

MODESTO, Calif. -- One of the nation's leading experts on cults Monday called the defense team theory that Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Connor, were killed by a Satanic cult as both "preposterous" and "ridiculous."

Rick Ross, who has studied cults and cult behavior in the United States for more than 20 years, told KTVU's Mornings on 2, that Scott Peterson's defense team was floating an alternative theory of the slaying based on a debunked urban myth.

"There is no chance whatsoever (the slaying was linked to a cult)," he said. "I think it's a pretty ridiculous story. I don't see anything compelling that would prove this or lead one to conclude this."

"In the late 80s and early 90s, there was something called the 'satanic panic' in which there were a number of allegations about satanic cult activities -- ritual sacrifices, abductions, slayings," he said. "When the FBI looked into it and numerous law enforcement agencies looked into it, they found nothing. And so this became kind of an urban myth."

"There is really nothing to substantiate that there are roving cults in California or elsewhere in the country that subscribe to Satanism that would do such a thing."

Ross said the dumping of Laci and Connor's bodies in the San Francisco Bay also does not follow any known cult pattern.

"When a cult slays someone, they don't hide the body," he said. "Typically, they leave the body at the scene of the crime. With self-styled Satanists like Richard Ramirez (the Night Stalker), David Berkowitz (the Son of Sam) that's what happened."

"In the cult slayings by the Manson family, not only did they leave the bodies behind which included the pregnant Sharon Tate but they wrote their beliefs on the wall in blood. There is nothing to connect Laci Peterson with a cult."

On the condition of Laci Peterson's body, Ross said: "It appears the body simply decomposed underwater. There is nothing that would link it to any kind of ritual murder. I've never, even in the most preposterous myths of Satanic groups that were purported in the late 1980s heard of a strangulation with tape. This is really just very far fetched."

When asked to characterize the defense's use of the theory, Ross turned to a popular sports analogy.

"It's the equivalent of the Hail Mary Pass in football, but in this case I'd call it the Hail Satan Pass," he said. Scott Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos, said over the weekend that he would not seek charges against family members and friends of Laci Peterson who staged an impromptu raid on the couple's Modesto home and removed several items including a rocking chair and crib.

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MODESTO -- Alleging "grave prosecutorial misconduct," Scott Peterson's lawyers want a judge to consider sanctions that could include removing the District Attorney's Office from his double-murder case. Defense attorneys filed a request Monday for a hearing on phone calls between Peterson and his lawyers that investigators intercepted.

If Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami grants the request, defense attorneys want to question investigators and a prosecutor under oath about the wiretaps.

"I need to assess what was told to who, and I need people under oath to do it," defense attorney Mark Geragos said Monday.

Defense attorneys will make their request during a separate hearing scheduled for Friday, the documents indicate.

The documents lay out a series of sanctions the defense may seek, including removing the District Attorney's Office, excluding testimony from any investigator or attorney involved in the wiretaps and barring any evidence unless prosecutors can demonstrate it did not come from the eavesdropping.

The defense also wants a closed hearing to question -- among others -- Steve Jacobson, an investigator for the District Attorney's Office who supervised the wiretaps, and Rick Distaso, the lead prosecutor on the case who provided investigators with "wiretap instructions."

Investigators intercepted 69 calls between Peterson and Modesto attorney Kirk McAllister, according to documents the prosecution filed with the court last month. They also intercepted two calls between Peterson and a private investigator working for McAllister.

The body of Peterson's pregnant wife, Laci, and that of their unborn child were found in April along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. Scott Peterson has pleaded not guilty in the deaths.

Prosecutors contend they followed state law when administering two wiretaps on Peterson's phones.

But they admit that investigators mistakenly monitored one call and portions of two others between Peterson and his attorneys.

"We're probably talking about two minutes or less of total conversations," prosecutor Distaso said last week.

Investigators did not listen to or record the remaining 68 calls, prosecutors say.

Girolami last week ordered investigators to give the defense copies of the recordings and a log of all calls between Peterson and his defense team.

Okay, so most of you probably know by now that Sharon Rocha, mother of murdered daughter, Laci Peterson, and other Rocha family members, broke into the Peterson home and took items they claim belonged to them. They didn’t. As it stands right now, those items belong to Scott Peterson, Laci’s husband, who has been arrested, but not convicted, of Laci’s murder.

I’ve been watching various FOX News spokespersons and even some guest attorneys, state that even if it was an illegal break-in and theft, and required police to respond to the Peterson’s burglar alarm, Sharon Rocha and her fellow family burglars will not face prosecution by the District Attorney’s Office, and I want to know why not?

These talking heads on FOX were equivocating right and left as to why the Rocha family felt the “situation” called for their criminal action. For some reason those morons at FOX think Scott Peterson’s conviction is a done deal, so why should Laci’s family have to wait to divide up the spoils?

In point of fact, California law holds that the family belongings are the property of the surviving spouse. That changes, of course, in the event that Scott Peterson is convicted of his wife’s murder – but that hasn’t happened yet, and may not happen.

Laci Peterson was a young woman excitedly expecting her first child, a son named Connor, when she disappeared last Christmas. Laci’s life was filled with love and family and friends surrounded her. Life was good, no, better than good. Life was wonderful as would be expected when love is on the hearth and a new angel is about to make an entrance into this world.

But this miracle of new life was about to be shattered forever and on Christmas day the world would change for all those who loved her. Those little newborn nighties would never be worn, the crib never used, the toys all put away or thrown away, so tainted would they become by a most heinous act that would stun a nation and mortally wound a family’s heart.

Her husband, Scott, said he had gone fishing, some hours away and returned home to find the leashed dog but not Laci. Gone fishing? When they are expecting their first child, on Christmas Eve day, he goes fishing hours away? While this might be an acceptable behaviour when there have been many children born and birthing had become routine but this is far from normal behaviour when the child is the first and the mum-to-be so close to term. The last trimester was already underway and as many of us normal folk know, babies have a way of arriving when they are ready and not always mindful of an external schedule.

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I seen the poster, and the news stating the other story on the diamonds... Maybe the FBI might know that answer, but as in Veil, they won't tell... ;o)

361 posted on 06/03/2003 6:41:47 PM PDT by runningbear (Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)

isn't it possible if those were Laci's shoes and they were at the end of the drive of her home that they could have fallen from some umbrellas that scaught transported into storage ?

363 posted on 06/03/2003 6:42:36 PM PDT by runningbear (Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)

364 posted on 06/03/2003 6:43:41 PM PDT by runningbear (Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)

365 posted on 06/03/2003 6:44:42 PM PDT by runningbear (Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)

If (and a big if it appears to be!)there were shoes of any sort outside, perhaps they were those rubber gardening shoes that could be left outside all the time.

368 posted on 06/03/2003 6:46:07 PM PDT by runningbear (Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)

Stewart just said Laci would not want to see these two families at war like this (obviously a plea to the Petersons to cease and desist).

Earlier he was asked about the jewelry story and said he was aware of it, the Rochas were aware of it, but he cannot comment. Then Ted Rowlands says "the Rochas were evidently aware of the jewelry so Laci must have been, too". That may be, but it seemed he was guessing as much as I am. Isn't he a reporter right there that could track down the jewelry story and nail it down, or at least act like he tried to do his own reporting and not go by appearances?

They are all acting like the worst of benificiaries to an estate....

I hope they get some of the momentos, but if Scott doesn't want to give them, the Rochas don't really have legal claim to anything. Lacy's things belong to Scott if there was no will that said otherwise.

371 posted on 06/03/2003 6:48:33 PM PDT by runningbear (Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)

372 posted on 06/03/2003 6:49:07 PM PDT by runningbear (Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)

This might seem simplistic and I have not read the entire posts but it seems strange to me that Laci was not wearing any of her rings.....I wonder when they were taken to be reset and why Scott or his parents think that they have the "right" to anything that was given to her by her grandmother?
So many things not right. The only way I would go along with the Satanic coven thing is if Scott was a member....
It makes as much sense as anything. And they were found within a couple miles of where Scott was "fishing".
The defense cannot muddy the waters anymore then they already seem to be muddied.

375 posted on 06/03/2003 6:52:25 PM PDT by runningbear (Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)

Word on the CTV forum is that they were flowered sandals found at the end of a driveway. Probably dropped by some little girl, and bearing no connection to Laci.

Just another straw being grasped by the defense.

I wonder when they were taken to be reset and why Scott or his parents think that they have the "right" to anything that was given to her by her grandmother?

Because normally if there is no will, the spouse is the first benificiary, if there is no spouse, then parents. It all belongs to Scott at this point. Anything he chooses to give them is optional.... He should, but he doesn't have to.

What I don't know is whether legally that changes when/if he is convicted. I imagine it will, if the Rochas are into contesting it.

I was just going to post that about Rowlands! He also had no idea if Scott did indeed have a tee-time scheduled for 12-23. Does seem like he could do some leg-work and go to these places and find someone who works there who could verify these things. He could at least say he's trying to find out, but doesn't. Is he somehow being stonewalled by employees of these places due to LE telling them not to speak to reporters, or what?

380 posted on 06/03/2003 6:55:15 PM PDT by runningbear (Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)

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