BURGLAR MAY TESTIFY vs. LACI HUBBY

The NY Post ^ | Jan 6 2004 | HOWARD BREUER

[runningbear]

BURGLAR MAY TESTIFY vs LACI HUBBY

BURGLAR MAY TESTIFY vs. LACI HUBBY

By HOWARD BREUER

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January 6, 2004 -- MODESTO, Calif. - A convicted burglar who targeted neighbors of Scott and Laci Peterson around the time Laci disappeared may testify at Scott's murder trial to try to refute testimony from a potentially key defense witness.

Prosecutors filed documents yesterday seeking to allow Steven Wayne Todd, 37, to testify in the sensational case. Last February, Todd was sentenced to more than eight years for burglaries in December 2002.

Prosecutors may try to use Todd to undermine the defense's assertions that detectives zeroed in on Scott Peterson as a suspect early in the case, effectively rejecting other leads that could have led to Laci's true killer.

Possible defense witness Diane Jackson told police she was driving home at 11:40 a.m. Dec. 24. - two hours after Scott says he left Laci to go on a fishing trip - when she spotted something suspicious.

She said she saw three men, presumably Todd and accomplices, standing near a tan van across the street from the Petersons' home, making them potential suspects in the case.

Police insist that Jackson was wrong about the date and that the burglaries actually occurred Dec. 26, two days after Laci vanished.

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Superior Court, Stanislaus County
January 5, 2004

Declaration and Order for Production of Inmate/Witness from Deuel Vocational Institute

Deuel Vocational Institute

Superior Court, Stanislaus County January 2, 2004

Opposition to Motion for Change of Venue; Declaration of Dr. Ebbe Ebbesen, Mark Smith, Caitriona Goss; Points and Authorities in Opposition to Change of Venue

Change of Venue

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Conflicting Polls to Be Presented in Peterson Change of Venue Hearing

Conflicting Polls to Be Presented in Peterson Change of Venue Hearing

A new poll contradicts an earlier finding that Stanislaus County residents weren't unduly influenced by media reports of the Laci Peterson case.

According to a report in The Modesto Bee, a survey authorized by defense attorneys found that citizens of Stanislaus County are more likely to have formed conclusions about the guilt or innocence of Scott Peterson than Bay Area and Southern California residents.

The survey was conducted by Stephen Schoenthaler, a criminal justice professor at California State University, Stanislaus. It questioned 1,175 prospective jurors in ten California counties about their attitudes on the case.

The poll found a wide disparity in results from Laci Peterson's home county and those elsewhere in California. The survey results indicate that nearly 70 percent of Stanislaus residents have formed a strong opinion in the case, compared to less than 50 percent of those living in the Bay Area and Southern California.

The defense is expected to use the results from the latest poll in a change of venue hearing scheduled for January 8.

On Friday, prosecutors with the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office filed a motion to keep the trial in Modesto. Based on the results of a survey conducted by a U.C. .......

Jacko Defense: He Wasn't There

Jacko Defense: He Wasn't There

What kind of defense is Mark Geragos putting together for Michael Jackson? How about: absentee molester?

The word is coming down that Geragos will use the specific dates mentioned in the charges filed against Jackson to exonerate the singer. Those dates — Feb. 7 to March 10, 2003 — will work in Jackson's favor, I am told.

The defense will reconstruct a timeline of Jackson's travels, primarily to Miami, to show that he was rarely in town or at Neverland when the D.A.'s office says he allegedly molested a 13-year-old boy suffering from cancer.

What is known already is that Jackson was in Miami on Jan. 16 last year for the funeral of Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb. Further, according to sources, he was also there on Feb. 6, the night ABC aired the Martin Bashir documentary "Living with Michael Jackson." He was then a guest of Miami lawyer Alvin Malnik.

The defense, I am told, will sketch out Jackson's trips through the six weeks in the police complaint, showing that Jackson was either in Miami or away and didn't have much access to the boy or his family.

Prosecutors will counter that the boy made a trip to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., during that time, and that Jackson saw him there. But even if that turns out to be true, all nine charges against Jackson specify that they took place in Santa Barbara County, Calif., and not anywhere else.

One source close to Jackson suggested to me that possibly he'd been in the Miami recording studio The Hit Factory in early February. But a Hit Factory source went through the facility's 2003 schedule book and concluded for me that Jackson .....

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Books

Laci : Inside the Laci Peterson Murder

and

The Murder of Laci Peterson: The Inside Story of What Really Happened

[runningbear]

Some latest news Scott Peterson

[runningbear]

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[runningbear]

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[Tijeras_Slim]

Bandwidth-limited ping...

Cruddy 24K dialup in a San Diego hotel.

[Constitution Day]

Slim in San Diego??

[Jackie-O]

Thanks for the ping rb.
This testimony for the Defense from Dianne Jackson sounds bogus to me for the mere fact that the times don't make any sense. Didn't another neighbor find McKenzie a little after 10AM and return the dog to the yard? If these people were hanging around at 11:40, wouldn't the dog be loose after that?

[pinz-n-needlez]

And Happy New Year to you both. :-D

Pinz

[Devil_Anse]

You're right. The finding of the dog at 10:15--or 10:18-- gives the lie to this story of something happening at 11:40. Are we supposed to believe that Laci lost her dog some time btw 9:30 and 10:15, then somehow crawled back to her house, panting from her narrow escape, only to be abducted around 11:40?

Not to mention that the cellphone records show that Scott must have been driving from house to warehouse around 10:08, much later than he said he left the house.

[drjulie]

"Not to mention that the cellphone records show that Scott must have been driving from house to warehouse around 10:08, much later than he said he left the house."

The importance of the timeline laid out at the prelim was underreported, IMO. I think if the prosecutors would have been able to argue they would have really emphasized the time the dog was found and the aforementioned cell phone call by Scott. These two factors really damage Scott's story.

[Jackie-O]

I think that the time line and linking Laci to the boat was their main focus at the pre-lim. There was so much hype about Amber testifying at the pre-lim, I don't think they ever intended to call her...only floated the notion to make MG show his hand, see what he intended to do.
With the bar being so low, I think they just needed to show as little probable cause as possible to bind him over.
IMO there is ALOT more than meets the eye.
But you are SOOO right Doc, timeline in just about every murder case is CRUCIAL!

[Devil_Anse]

Yes--it looks like there were 10 whole minutes in which Laci changed her clothes, put on her shoes, got her dog on his leash, went to the park, got abducted, and in which her dog was able to make it back to the house.

And there's that door on the Petersons' house. I think it was one in the back. It was allegedly found unlocked. Looks like Scott, while he was peddling the story that she got abducted while walking the dog in the park, also wanted to leave open the possibility that someone went to the house and took her from there.

Considering that one of the TWO life jackets that the man sold Scott with the boat was missing, I wondered also if Scott toyed with the idea of saying he and Laci went out in the boat, and that she fell out and he couldn't reach her in time to rescue her.

[Canadian Outrage]

It does sound bogus!! Look for the Defense to do some "desperate" things in the next 48 hours. (or less)

[Jackie-O]

And don't forget Dev, she mopped the floor in that 10 minutes also...quite allot for someone who was that pregnant, swollen feet, tiring easily. Maybe the cereal she ate that morning was Wheaties??

[Jackie-O]

It boggles my mind to think of what MG is juggling right now with his two big cases. Right now he's probably spinning his wheels trying to come up with some way to repair the damage Jackson has done to his credibility by claiming he was "manhandled, abused" by LE on 60 Minutes last week. It must be hard for him to come up with some way to separate the term "liar" from the term "pedophile" The two words alone are damning enough....
He has had to backtrack on so many of his bizarre scenarios of how Laci was murdered, but wait, in his last filing wasn't he saying that there was no proof that Laci was even murdered??? I'm so confused! ;o)

[MEG33]

Thank you!

[Velveeta]

ROFL. You crack me up.

[Velveeta]

He's laughing all the way to the bank while juggling these cases.

[Devil_Anse]

LOL, Wheaties! Breakfast of Champions!

Unless Scott ate it--then it would be Breakfast of Losers.