Death certificates opened for Laci Peterson and son

MODESTO - The Contra Costa County Coroner's Office could not determine a cause of death for Laci Peterson, but concluded that her son was born dead.

The coroner lists Peterson's manner of death as homicide. Death certificates for the 27-year-old and the son with whom she was eight months pregnant were made public late Friday.

A judge agreed earlier in the day to allow release of the documents, but kept sealed the results of the two autopsies.

During two hours of courtroom wrangling, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami told Scott Peterson's defense lawyers and the prosecutors who have charged him with the murders of his wife and child that the report will remain sealed until a preliminary hearing.

The death certificates were filed in Contra Costa County on Friday. Signed April 21, they are the official record of Laci and Conner Peterson's deaths.

The filings do not mean the remains will be released to Laci Peterson's family. A court order requires the coroner's office to retain custody of the remains until told otherwise by a judge, said coroner's spokesman Jimmy Lee.

Laci Peterson's family does not know when that will be, said family spokeswoman Kim Petersen. "It's a very tough time for them," she said Friday.

The death certificates contain the time and place of death. For Laci Peterson, the coroner's office specifies the date she was found on the Richmond shoreline, April 14.

Conner Peterson was found a day earlier. That is specified on his fetal death certificate, along with where he was found along the Richmond shoreline. Fetal death certificates have no category for a cause of death. Conner's does specify that he was born dead.

Cable news station MSNBC reported last week that a leaked portion of the autopsy reports showed that Conner was found with 11/2 loops of tape around his neck.

Legal analysts have surmised the information could be used to back a defense theory that a satanic cult played a role in Laci Peterson's disappearance and slaying.

It also was widely believed that the defense team had a hand in leaking the autopsy to bolster its case with the public, an allegation attorney Mark Geragos adamantly denied.

The autopsy had been sealed May 15 at the request of both defense attorneys and prosecutors. After last week's leak, the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office asked that the entire report be unsealed.

Deputy district attorney David Harris told Girolami on Friday the leaked details provided a "significant slant" in favor of the defense. "We can't discuss inaccuracies or accuracies without violating the court order," he said.

Girolami said the results will not be unsealed. "I don't think that releasing the report at this time is necessary. The mere fact that someone has leaked out part of the report does not justify releasing all of it."

In other matters, Girolami told lawyers for 22 reporters that a state law does not protect calls and conversations they placed to Scott Peterson. Authorities wiretapped Peterson's phone before his arrest and alerted journalists last month that they had been taped.

Scott Peterson, 30, was arrested April 18. His wife, who was eight months pregnant, vanished Dec. 23 or 24 from her Modesto home.

By Tim Wimborne
MODESTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A judge refused on Friday to make public graphic autopsy reports for Laci Peterson and her unborn son, rebuffing press efforts to unseal key documents in a murder case that has riveted the nation.

The parents of the 27-year-old substitute teacher left the Stanislaus County courtroom when Superior Court Judge Al Girolami began discussing whether to release the autopsy, grim details of which have already surfaced in media reports.

Laci's husband, Scott Peterson, 30, who is charged with two murders and could face the death penalty if convicted, has pleaded not guilty.

During the autopsy discussion, Peterson, who has shown little emotion during the proceedings, dabbed his eyes with a tissue and appeared grim-faced, swallowing hard several times.

"This is not about adverse publicity," Peterson's attorney Mark Geragos told the court in opposing the release of the autopsies. "I'm worried about my client's life."

Geragos has argued against releasing many of the documents in the case, saying that to do so would increase the already high public hostility toward his client.

Judge Girolami said leaks to the press of some details from the coroner's reports were not a justification to release the entire document. Prosecutors in the case had withdrawn their objections to the report's release.

The judge, however, refused to authorize a gag order on lawyers in the case and authorized the Contra Costa County coroner to prepare and release death certificates for Laci and her unborn son, that might list a cause of death.

Officials have not publicly stated how they believe Laci Peterson died, and have released few details of the case they have against Peterson.

The two decaying corpses washed out of San Francisco Bay in April, prompting Peterson's arrest. Coroners worked for weeks on the bodies, saying the advanced state of decomposition made their job especially difficult.

A law enforcement official told Reuters on Friday that plastic was wrapped in the area of the neck of the unborn baby when it was found along the Contra Costa high-tide shoreline, but said it could well have been from trash rather than a clue to the murder.

"There is a lot of junk in the sea, maybe that's what it is," the official said.

San Francisco television station KTVU quoted law enforcement sources on Friday as saying Laci Peterson may have been drugged with a so-called date rape drug to weaken her before being strangled........

Media Won't Hear Scott Peterson Wiretaps
Judge Rejects Reporters' Requests to Hear Wiretaps of Husband in Laci Peterson Murder Case

The judge in the Laci Peterson murder case on Friday rejected requests by reporters to listen to wiretaps of phone calls they made to Scott Peterson.

Attorneys representing 22 reporters had asked to review to tapes of their calls to Peterson so they could determine if they might be barred from becoming evidence.

The lawyers said those conversations were protected under the California Shield Law, which protects reporters from turning over unpublished work. They claimed the wiretaps are the same as journalists' notes.

But Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami said he did not think journalists were entitled to any privilege protecting their phone calls. He did, however, delay for 10 days the release of the tapes.

Girolami's ruling came during the first hour of a hearing in which he also set a June 19 date to rule on defense motions regarding wiretaps of Peterson's calls. The judge was also expected to begin considering a prosecution motion to unseal results of an autopsy on the bodies of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner.

Scott Peterson's lawyers want the judge to dismiss the prosecutors assigned to the case and to toss out the results of two wiretaps that monitored thousands of Peterson's calls after the disappearance of his pregnant wife, Laci.

During the court-approved wiretaps, the first of which began two weeks after Laci Peterson vanished when investigators thought they had exhausted normal evidence-gathering techniques, police logged 3,858 phone calls made to her husband, according to court papers.

Some of those conversations will be questioned by defense lawyers, who claim police eavesdropped on protected conversations between Scott Peterson and his lawyer.

Girolami will also consider issuing a gag order to prevent evidence leaks in the case and he may decide whether to release autopsy results of Laci Peterson and her unborn son. Prosecutors have said they support some form of a gag order, while defense lawyer Mark Geragos said in court paper that he opposes any effort to curtail discussions about the case.

Peterson, 30, has pleaded innocent to two counts of murder for ....................

A judge kept under wraps many documents and other evidence in the Peterson double-murder case Friday. During a discussion of autopsy reports, defendant Scott Peterson - who is charged with killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner - dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief.

Kept sealed wiretap recordings. He allowed prosecutors and defense attorneys to get copies of the tapes, but temporarily prohibited the handing over of calls between Peterson and journalists. Prosecutors also are not allowed to hear calls between Peterson and his defense team.

Delayed a decision on a potential gag order preventing principals ...................

That is why maybe MG is still aruging for them to stay sealed...so he can still put out those stupid ideas, but he has to to try to save his client's life, as he stated in one the the KTVU clips..

Police Believe Laci Was Drugged And Strangled

POSTED: 7:18 a.m. PDT June 6, 2003
UPDATED: 4:06 p.m. PDT June 6, 2003

MODESTO, Calif. -- Police believe Scott Peterson drugged his pregnant wife with the growth hormone and date rape drug -- GHB -- and then strangled her in the couple's Modesto home, numerous sources revealed to KTVU Channel 2 on Friday.

Sources on both sides of the case told KTVU's Ted Rowlands that the prosecution's theory of the crime had been pieced together using information salvaged from a computer taken from the Peterson home.

The murder, one source said, was being classified as a 'soft kill' -- meaning there was very little evidence of the crime at the couple's home. The leaks came just hours before a series of hearings were take place in Modesto.

Slideshow: Scott Peterson Gets Emotional During Friday's Hearing

(some mystical stick picking must be poking scaughty!;o))

At the 8:30 a.m. hearing, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami ruled on a laundry list of legal issues. Girolami ruled that autopsy results of Peterson and her unborn son will remain sealed, and declined to issue a gag order on lawyers in the case.

Prosecutors have said they support some form of a gag order, while defense attorney Mark Geragos said in court papers that he opposes any effort to curtail discussions about the case.

Prosecutors also made the request last week to unseal the autopsy after extensive news leaks of the results. The prosecution team argued in a motion that the leaks were prejudicial toward the defense case. Among details reported by MSNBC and confirmed by an Associated Press source close to the case on condition of anonymity, the report said there was 1 1/2 loops of plastic around the fetus' neck and a significant cut on its body.

Analysts said the results could be used to bolster a defense argument that Peterson was kidnapped by a satanic cult.

Reports stay sealed: Autopsy findings shielded in tearful hearing

An overflow area outside the courthouse allowed the media and public to view the Peterson hearing.
BART AH YOU/THE BEE

Reports stay sealed: Autopsy findings shielded in tearful hearing

By JOHN COTÉ and GARTH STAPLEY
BEE STAFF WRITERS
Published: June 7, 2003, 06:39:42 AM PDT

Court proceedings in the Scott Peterson murder case produced emotion and some action on Friday. The victim's mother broke down and her son-in-law, the accused, wiped one eye and dabbed the other with a handkerchief during discussion of the Laci and Conner Peterson autopsy reports.

Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, started crying as attorneys sparred over leaked information from the autopsy report on Conner, the son with whom Laci was pregnant when she disappeared from her Modesto home at Christmastime.

Rocha's husband, Ron Grantski, helped her from her front-row seat and walked her out of the Stanislaus County courtroom.

Judge Al Girolami denied prosecutors' request to unseal the reports.

Also, he delayed a decision on implementing a gag order in the case that has fueled intense media coverage. Peterson has pleaded not guilty in the slayings of his wife and their unborn son, and could get the death penalty if convicted.

The district attorney's office did an about-face May 29 and asked Girolami to release the autopsy reports. The motion came after cable news network MSNBC reported some of the findings of the fetal autopsy.

Prosecutors said they want the reports out in the open because the leaked information was "skewed" for the defense.

Charity Kenyon, an attorney representing a group of newspapers, including The Bee, argued that autopsy reports are normally open to the public and should be released in this case to help counter misinformation.

"It's better for everybody for these accurate reports to be released to the public," Kenyon said.

In denying the request, Girolami noted his earlier decision to seal the reports to counter media attention that could impede a fair trial.

"The fact that somebody leaked out part of that report does not justify releasing the whole report," Girolami said.

The judge gave permission to the Contra Costa County coroner's office to issue death certificates -- and the documents came out Friday afternoon.

The certificate for Laci Peterson lists the manner of death as "homicide" and notes that the cause of death was undetermined. The fetal certificate does not list a cause of death.

Girolami instructed coroner's officials to provide all documents from the autopsies to the prosecution and defense.

The court put off until June 26 a hearing on a defense motion for sanctions against the district attorney's office for a wiretap operation. The defense sought the delay pending receipt of additional documents and recordings.

Wiretap data released

Girolami ordered the lead wiretap investigator to give to the defense all recordings and documentation, except data on calls between Peterson and journalists.

The prosecution is to get everything but the data from the journalists calls, and those between Peterson and his defense team.

Attorneys representing 22 journalists want to review their calls, asserting that the recordings are protected under state and federal law from being released to the prosecution or defense.

"The state simply cannot rely on journalists to further its case," said Rochelle Wilcox, an attorney representing 17 journalists, including four from The Bee. "These communications deserve protection."

Girolami disagreed, but delayed the release of those recordings until June 17 to allow the media time to take the issue to the state's 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno.

"We have asked our attorneys to appeal the decision," Bee Managing Editor Joe Demma said after the hearing.

A potential complication for the prosecution emerged when lead defense attorney Mark Geragos asked for the transcripts from all conferences surrounding the wiretaps.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Rick Distaso revealed that no court reporter was present during regular meetings between investigators, prosecutors and Judge Wray Ladine over the wiretaps.

In capital cases, state law requires all court proceedings and conferences "whether in open court, in conference in the courtroom, or in chambers" to be conducted with court reporters present.

Girolami heard arguments on a gag order under which attorneys and others connected with the case could be prohibited from talking with the media.

The judge did not betray which way he might be leaning on such an order, but he probed whether it would be feasible to allow Fresno massage therapist Amber Frey, who had a romantic relationship with Scott Peterson, to defend herself from possible character attacks.

Prosecutors argued for a partial gag, or an order that would restrict what attorneys, investigators and other principals could talk about in public.

Geragos and Kenyon said the judge should remind all attorneys of their professional obligations and leave it at that.

"I don't think a gag order is going to solve anything," Geragos said. He said such an order would prevent him or anyone else from calling journalists to set them straight on possible inaccurate reports.

Without good information, journalists would "fill the vacuum .....

New DOCS

Superior Court, Stanislaus County June 6, 2003
Minute Order from Hearing 6/6/03;
Sealing of the Records, Release of Audio Recordings Sanctions, Release of Autopsy Records & Protective Orders
PDF (81 KB)

and

Superior Court, Stanislaus County
June 6, 2003
Reply to Opposition to Motion for Hearing re: Sanctions and Request for Disclosure of the Affadavit and all Intercepted Communications
PDF (465 KB)

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