Posted on 02/04/2004 5:40:33 AM PST by runningbear
Peterson attorneys take new local poll
Article Last Updated: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 3:49:28 AM PST
Peterson attorneys take new local poll
Legal team may ask for another change of venue in murder case
By Jason Dearen, STAFF WRITER
REDWOOD CITY -- The Scott Peterson legal defense team is polling San Mateo County residents regarding the double-murder case to help decide whether to request another change of venue.
Over the past few days, residents have received calls from pollsters led by Paul Strand, dean of arts and letters at San Diego State University, who conducted a similar study for defense attorney Mark Geragos when he sought a change of venue from Stanislaus County.
The questions range from whether or not people would convict Scott Peterson based solely on DNA evidence, to their thoughts about extramarital affairs, to their knowledge of boating.
San Carlos resident Mary Hanna was working on her computer Friday afternoon when she received the call. "They asked me what kinds of things would influence me, like his demeanor, and my opinions about other things like the death penalty and extramarital affairs," said Hanna, a freelance humor columnist for ANG Newspapers.
They also asked about Hanna's income, political affiliation and her thoughts on how Modesto police handled the case. "But I was called for jury duty less than a year ago," she said. "So I'm off the hook."
The outcome of the poll will provide the defense with a "prejudgment rate" -- a percentage of those county residents polled who believe Peterson murdered his wife, Laci, and the couple's unborn son. More than a thousand county residents are expected to be summoned as potential jurors.
Geragos, of Los Angeles, said at Monday's first Redwood City hearing that the county might merely be a way station en route to the trial's final destination. The trial was moved out of Modesto last month when a Stanislaus County judge ruled that Peterson could not receive a fair trial in the couple's hometown.
If Geragos moves to relocate the trial, the data his pollster gathers could be used to bolster his argument.
"Polling is one method for demonstrating to the judge that there is a very high prejudgment rate in the county," said jury consultant Karen Jo Koonan of the National Jury Project West. She said that polls used for change-of-venue motions usually involve between 400 and 800 respondents.
California law does not require that jurors be oblivious to a case before serving on a jury, only that they are able to put aside .......
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Judge bans cameras in courtroom
Judge bans cameras in courtroom
By Jamie Casini
Staff Writer
jcasini@examiner.com
Published on Tuesday, February 3, 2004
REDWOOD CITY -- Despite pleas from broadcasters hoping to televise the capital murder trial of Scott Peterson, Judge Alfred Delucchi ruled Monday that cameras would not serve justice.
Trial junkies will have to get their fix the old-fashioned way -- by reading the newspaper.
"The court really needs to consider the public interest in this case," argued Rochelle Wilcox, an attorney representing several television networks. "This case touches people -- it is about a regular family -- a mother-to-be and her husband."
Although the judge's decision frustrated broadcast media, the move pleased both the prosecution and the defense. Both sides requested the ban on cameras.
"They're [the networks] not asking for anything but ratings," defense attorney Mark Geragos told the judge. "This is an important case for my client because it means his life or death. This is a criminal case involving people's real lives. Cameras would make it even more of a zoo than it already is."
Delucchi offered several reasons why he will only allow print media into the courtroom. Not only did both sides oppose the presence of cameras, but Delucchi said cameras would taint the privacy of jurors, witnesses and the families of both Scott and Laci Peterson while affecting the court's ability to select a fair and impartial jury.
Monday, Scott Peterson's father, Lee, was in attendance as were Laci Peterson's mother, stepfather and brother.
"Finally, I want to maintain orderly conduct," Delucchi said. "The cameras could negatively affect jurors and witnesses who testify and then see their faces plastered on TV."
In other business at Monday's hearing, Geragos withdrew his motion stating that Judge Richard Arnason should not have been removed from the case...........
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Geragos raises eyebrows trying to juggle trials
Posted on Tue, Feb. 03, 2004
Geragos raises eyebrows trying to juggle trials
By JULIA PRODIS SULEK
San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Faster than Scott Peterson can be moved from Modesto to the Redwood City jail, more powerful than Michael Jackson's bodyguards, able to juggle the two highest-profile criminal cases in the country at once - it's Mark Geragos! (Rhymes with asparagus.)
The celebrated defense lawyer is out to rescue both the notorious fertilizer salesman and the King of Pop. But he hasn't saved either one yet - and some say this two-headed legal monster is more than even a superhero can handle, or should.
There's a chance, some say, that he can harm his clients by representing both. What if some jurors in Peterson's double-murder case are turned off by Geragos because he represents someone accused of child molestation? Or, what if some Jackson jurors are disgusted that Geragos defended a man accused of murdering his pregnant wife and her 8-month-old fetus?
Nonetheless, the ubiquitous Geragos is running full speed ahead thanks to his ability to quickly shift gears, his devoted entourage and the occasional use of a private jet.
He was in court Monday with Peterson for his client's first appearance in Redwood City since his case was moved out of Modesto.
Michael Jackson hired Geragos nearly a year ago - two months before Scott Peterson was arrested - to guide him through the molestation allegations of a 14-year-old boy. But it wasn't until Nov. 18, the last day of Peterson's preliminary hearing in Modesto, that the two cases collided.
On the second floor of the Stanislaus County courthouse, above the pack of TV cameras waiting outside, the aggressive yet charming defense lawyer grilled a Modesto detective about the 241 cell phone calls between Peterson and his mistress both before and after Peterson's wife, Laci, disappeared on Dec. 24, 2002.
But in the midst of his cross-examination, Geragos suddenly felt a buzz on his hip. It was his pager.
He glanced at the text message: Police were searching Neverland Ranch. Michael Jackson was in trouble. He needed Mark Geragos.
Within hours of the judge binding Peterson over ......
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Posted on Mon, Feb. 02, 2004
Hearing for Peterson trial under way this morning in Redwood City
ONLY TWO NON-MEDIA PEOPLE SHOW UP FOR LOTTERY TO WATCH PROCEEDINGS
By Chuck Carroll
Mercury News
Reporters outnumbered the public by a long shot this morning as Laci Peterson's mother and stepfather arrived in the rain before the start of the first hearing to be held in Redwood City in the much-anticipated double-murder trial of Scott Peterson.
It wasn't clear why only two members of the public showed up at 7 a.m. to enter a lottery for one of 26 seats set aside for the public today in the 105-seat courtroom. But neither the weather nor the lack of competition for the seats dampened the joy to those who were able to sit in the courtroom. They whooped it up when a court official announced they would be allowed to attend today's hearing on a number of procedural matters.
There will be no testimony or jury selection today. One matter before the court is a motion by Scott Peterson's attorney that challenges the prosecution's disqualification of retired Contra Costa County Judge Richard Arnason, saying that challenge came too late. Retired Alameda County Judge Alfred Delucchi will consider that motion and others, including whether cameras will be allowed in the courtroom. Defense attorney Mark Geragos is expected to seek a delay in the start of the trail because he is currently involved in another case.
Monica DeVincenzi, 23, a law student at Santa Clara University and a Redwood City resident, said she seized on her chance to get a seat in the courthouse today in part because it was so convenient.
``It's so close to home, and I've never been to court before,'' she said. ``Anything we see in there will be great. I want to see the people in person.''
The lottery for passes to seats in courtroom is scheduled to be held every morning at 7. The number of seats available to the public will vary, officials said, depending on how many are needed by the families of Scott and Laci Peterson and other factors. Most of the seats will go to the media.
Amie Barnes, a 16-year-old from Cupertino, was the other member of the public gripping a pass to the courtroom today after the lottery.
The home-schooling sophomore, dropped off at .........
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Peterson trial put on hold
An electronic billboard tally over Peterson's guilt or innocence shows 62 guilty votes and 24 innocent votes. The trailer was later ordered away from the courthouse 'environs.' BART AH YOU/THE BEE
'Yes. It's a regrettable necessity, your honor.'
-- Scott Peterson responding to the judge when asked if he waived his right to a speedy trial
Sharon Rocha, mother of Laci Peterson, leaves a Redwood City courthouse with her husband, Ron Grantski, far right, after a judge approved a delay Monday in Scott Peterson's murder trial. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By JOHN COTÉ
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: February 3, 2004, 06:12:28 AM PST
REDWOOD CITY -- A judge Monday delayed Scott Peterson's double-murder trial at least a week and banned cameras from the courtroom for the duration of the trial. "No cameras," retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi said.
Peterson, making his first appearance in a San Mateo County courtroom, stood briefly when asked if he waived his right to a speedy trial until next Monday.
"Yes," he told Delucchi. "It's a regrettable necessity, your honor."
Defense attorney Mark Geragos requested the delay because he has been ordered to begin a murder trial in Pasadena. Geragos said he wanted to start Peterson's trial "within 24 hours" of wrapping up that case, but also suggested he may seek to have Peterson's trial moved to a new county. It is in San Mateo County on a change of venue from Stanislaus County.
Peterson, 31, of Modesto, is charged with murdering his wife, Laci, and their unborn son. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Peterson is due back in court Monday for a hearing largely expected to focus on procedural and scheduling issues, including when to hear motions on evidence and when to distribute juror questionnaires to gauge potential bias. The Pasadena trial is unlikely to be over by Monday, but Geragos said its length is likely to be clearer by then.
Under state law, Peterson's trial had to start Monday unless he waived his right to a speedy trial or a judge found good cause to delay it.
Delucchi, taking the bench in the case for the first time, said media coverage factored into his decision to exclude cameras. The prosecution and defense had asked for the ban.
"It could have a chilling effect on the testimony of witnesses," Delucchi said after ticking off a series of reasons to keep cameras out, including maintaining courtroom order, the potential impact on picking a fair jury and preserving privacy for witnesses, jurors and family members.
Delucchi brushed aside arguments by attorney Karl Olson, who represents a consortium of newspapers including The Bee. Olson pointed to Super Bowl photos in Monday papers in arguing that still cameras improve news coverage.
"This isn't the Super Bowl," Delucchi responded curtly.
Geragos said efforts to televise the trial were about "nothing but ratings." And he dismissed as "psycho-babble" an argument by television attorney Rochelle Wilcox that broadcasts would prove cathartic for Modesto residents who joined in massive search efforts for Laci Peterson after she was reported missing Christmas Eve 2002.
Geragos raised the possibility he may seek to have the trial moved again if the defense feels a fair jury cannot be seated here.
"We don't know if we're going to end up in San Mateo (County)," Geragos said. "This could be a way station."
Outside the courthouse, Geragos stopped short of saying he would seek to move the trial again, but noted that under the law his client could ask for a second move after questioning of potential jurors begins.
"There's always the issue of whether we can seat a fair jury," Geragos said.
Prosecutors, who had opposed moving the trial from Modesto and at one point asked Stanislaus County Judge Al Girolami to revisit his decision to change the venue, seemed wary of a potential second move.
"We're happy to stay here," Chief Deputy District Attorney John Goold said outside San Mateo .......
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County, Redwood City justify fees to trial media
Article Last Updated: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 3:45:32 AM PST
County, Redwood City justify fees to trial media
By Suzanne Zalev and Tim Hay, STAFF WRITERS
REDWOOD CITY -- County officials insisted Monday that the $1.5 million they hope to collect in rent from the media during the Scott Peterson murder trial won't even cover the costs of catering to the media.
While conceding the rent is much more than charged in Modesto, authorities here said the media will get more services for their money -- including around-the-clock security for their equipment.
"We're not going to make a dime off this," Supervisor Mike Nevin said. "In fact, we're probably going to lose money."
Journalists were outraged Friday when County officials announced the cost of setting up shop in Redwood City: Networks will pay $51,000 for the estimated six-month trial, or about $280 a day, to set up shop in the tent city outside the courthouse. Redwood City will also charge them $7,500 a month to park their satellite trucks on Middlefield Road.
On Monday, the County itemized the costs, attempting to show what it would take to cover expenses related to hosting throngs of media.
But Mark Church, the president of the Board of Supervisors, will demand a more detailed breakdown later this month.
Deputy County Manager Mary McMillan said the entire tent city setup is expected to cost $820,000 for six months, or $51,000 for each of the 16 spaces. This includes $320,500 for security -- $173,800 in the tent area outside the courthouse, $103,700 in the press office set up in the old courthouse annex, $34,700 for a special press entrance and $8,300 in other security costs.
Utilities, communication and services, including portable toilets, generators, a video link to the press office in the annex and setup, will cost another $343,600. Administration costs, including a 10 percent "contingency" of $74,551, account for the remaining $155,961.
Nevin said the television stations will not pay rent on the spaces, and the press office in the annex is being provided for free.
"We didn't make this up. These are things that they need," Nevin said.
According to Libby Lane, a spokesperson for Stanislaus County, six major networks were charged $2,500 each for use of a large vacant lot across the street from the courthouse, where they built a home base to cover the three-week preliminary hearing.
At that price, a six-month proceeding would have cost each network about $20,000 -- less than half of what San Mateo County is charging. ........
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Judge bans cameras in Peterson courtroom
Posted on Tue, Feb. 03, 2004
Judge bans cameras in Peterson courtroom
By Brian Anderson
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
REDWOOD CITY - Newspaper and TV reporters lost their battle Monday to bring cameras in the courtroom for the upcoming Scott Peterson trial.
The Alameda County judge assigned to the case ruled that allowing cameras inside the Redwood City courtroom where Peterson's case is expected to be held would pose too much of a distraction to jurors and witnesses.
In barring cameras, Judge Al Delucchi rejected arguments from media lawyers that televising the drama would bring catharsis for emotionally connected Modesto-area residents. Laci Peterson, 27, vanished from her Modesto home Dec. 24, 2002.
"The case touches people because it involves a regular family," said Rochelle Wilcox, a Los Angeles attorney who represented several television networks. "The public responded. The citizens of Modesto responded."
Both prosecutors and defense attorneys had asked for the ban on cameras.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos said allowing cameras in the courtroom would create even a greater "carnival-type atmosphere" than already exists.
"This is not the Super Bowl," Geragos said in a response to one media lawyer's argument that referenced the sports event. "This is a criminal trial. They have a right to be present in the courtroom, but they do not have a right to have a camera."
The case has garnered huge publicity in the 13 months since Laci Peterson disappeared. News accounts grew even greater in April following Peterson's arrest days after his wife and the couple's unborn son washed ashore in Richmond.
He has said he is innocent of two murder counts charged against him.
Peterson, 31, dressed in a gray suit, smiled ...........
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Key players in the Scott Peterson murder trial
Key players in the Scott Peterson murder trial
Laci Denise Peterson
Peterson, A 27-year-old substitute teacher, was raised in Escalon and moved to Modesto in high school. She attended Cal Poly State University and met her future husband in 1995 at a cafe in which he worked. The couple married in 1997, opened and sold a restaurant and returned to Modesto. At the time of her disappearance she was eight months pregnant with her first child, a boy which the couple planned to name Connor. She was due Feb. 10, 2003.
Scott Lee Peterson
The 31-year-old fertilizer salesman was born in San Diego, the youngest of five boys. He attended Arizona State University on a partial golf scholarship but moved to Morro Bay before graduating. To pay his way through Cal Poly State University he worked as a waiter at the Pacific Cafe, where he would meet Laci. After selling their restaurant the couple moved back to Modesto and he found a job as a fertilizer salesman.
Peterson has admitted to cheating on his wife before her disappearance but said Laci knew about it. Peterson was arrested in April, shortly before DNA tests confirmed the identity of two bodies washed up in Richmond as Laci and Connor. He was on a San Diego golf course with dyed blonde hair, $10,000 in cash and his brother’s identification.
Amber Frey
Frey, 30, is a massage therapist in Fresno who met Peterson Nov. 20, little more than a month before his wife was reported missing. Frey has acknowledged having a romantic relationship with Peterson but said he claimed to be a widower about to celebrate his first Christmas without his wife.
Peterson escorted Frey to social events while dating and met her friends and family.
Once Frey realized the truth about Peterson, she contacted police Dec. 30 and even agreed to secretly tape phone conversations between the two.
Frey is a single mother and has said Peterson met her then-2-year-old daughter. Frey is also about six months pregnant currently, a fact that makes some legal analysts wonder if it will remind the jurors of Laci Peterson.
Prosecutor Dave Harris
Harris, a senior deputy district attorney, has worked in Stanislaus County since 1991 after four years in Southern California. Harris received his law degree from the California Western School of Law. His resume includes a wide range of cases, including the capital murder trial of a landlord who killed a tenant after he set fire to a rental unit for insurance money. The defendant was sentenced to life in prison........
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(Excerpt) Read more at oaklandtribune.com ...
Reported story on KTVU news...
Vivian Mitchell
Key Potential Peterson Defense Witness Dies
POSTED: 11:24 PM PST February 4, 2004
UPDATED: 12:01 AM PST February 5, 2004
MODESTO, Calif. -- The Scott Peterson defense team has suffered a major setback -- an elderly neighbor who claimed to have seen Laci Peterson walking her dog on the day she disappeared from her Modesto home, countering the police theory of the crime -- has died.
Several news agencies were reporting late Wednesday night that Vivian Mitchell had passed away. Mitchell's report was among those discounted by the Modesto Police during their investigation of Laci's disappearance and death.
Vivian and her husband, Bill, told reporters and the police that they saw Laci Peterson at about 10 a.m. or 10:15 a.m. on Dec. 24, wearing white and black clothes and walking with a golden retriever.
The Mitchell home is about 10 blocks from the Covena Avenue home where Laci Peterson, nearly eight months pregnant, disappeared during the day.
"I had seen Laci walk by the house several times before," said Vivian Mitchell at the time. "When she walked by on Christmas Eve, I hollered to Bill, 'Oh look, it's the lady with the golden retriever."'
Bill Mitchell, who served three terms on the Modesto City Council, said he saw Laci go around the corner as he went to the window.
"It looked like the dog wanted to go one way, and she was going another," he told The Modesto Bee.
Vivian Mitchell said she reported the sighting to Modesto Police about a week after Laci Peterson disappeared, but never heard back.
It was not known if Mitchell was to be called as a defense witness at the upcoming trial, but her testimony would certainly have been key to countering the prosecutors theory of the murder that Scott Peterson killed his wife and dumped her body in the San Francisco Bay.
Meanwhile, a Southern California judge expressed concern Wednesday that Peterson's attorney Mark Geragos will be too busy to handle a lesser-known client in a 5-year-old embezzlement case.
"This court is going to be way out of line on your priority list as far as in-custody cases, which is what my long-range concern is," Judge Frank F. Fasel told Geragos in Orange County Superior Court.
The Los Angeles lawyer will have a busy schedule this year after being hired to handle the child molestation case against Michael Jackson in Santa Barbara County and the double-murder case against Peterson, which was filed in Stanislaus County and will be tried in San Mateo County.
The Peterson prosecution is a potential death-penalty case, which Fasel acknowledged takes precedence under law.
In Orange County, Geragos represents Jeffrey Hambarian, a longtime trash hauler accused of embezzling $4 million from the city of Orange. Hambarian was arrested in 1999 and is free on bail.
Prosecutors believe Hambarian was the mastermind behind an elaborate series of fraud and embezzlement schemes that inflated city garbage rates......
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Peterson-like crime goes largley unnoticed
Article Last Updated: Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 3:39:30 AM PST
Peterson-like crime goes largley unnoticed
Eddie Rapoza, charged with killing his pregnant wife and unborn child, largely ignored by media
By Amelia Hansen, STAFF WRITER
REDWOOD CITY -- Deep inside the Maguire Correctional Facility, a man accused of killing his pregnant wife and unborn child sits waiting for his day in court.
His name is not Scott Peterson.
But like Peterson, he is in his 30s, has dark hair, and will stand trial for multiple counts of murder. Unlike Peterson, when Eddie Rapoza goes on trial -- possibly for his life -- the national media will probably continue to ignore him. Despite the intriguingly close parallels to the Peterson case, the Rapoza case has failed to capture America's imagination -- in part, some say, because there simply was not enough mystery.
Rapoza, 36, is charged with driving his seven-months-pregnant wife and 4-year-old daughter off a Moss Beach cliff and into the ocean, 150 feet below.
Raye Rapoza, 34, and her unborn child died at the scene. The couple's daughter, Tehani, died eight days later.
Rapoza is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 20 to have a trial date set, and to see if the prosecution will seek the death penalty.
Meanwhile, the Peterson case is beginning in the same courthouse, under the hyper-watchful eyes of media from around the world.
Laci Peterson, eight months pregnant, disappeared on Christmas Eve of 2002. By the time police found her body -- and that of her unborn son -- over four months later, images of Laci's pretty, smiling face had been broadcast to living rooms across the country. The fact of her death was undeniable, but the cause of her death remained unknown.
By contrast, the Rapoza deaths came instantly. Investigators reported the blue Dodge minivan, driven by Eddie Rapoza, went over the cliff at Bernal Avenue in Moss Beach at 50 miles per hour. Witnesses reported that Raye Rapoza was still wearing her seatbelt, her head underwater, by the time she was pulled from the van.
There was no need for "missing" posters or search teams for Raye Rapoza. And aside from her name, age, and the fact that she was pregnant, local media reports offered little information about the dead mother.
Unlike the Peterson case, there has never been much mystery with Rapoza -- except why the deaths happened. The prosecution contends Eddie Rapoza had accused his wife of being unfaithful and intentionally drove the van off the cliff; Rapoza, who has pleaded innocent, says his foot stuck on the accelerator, which had been adjusted for his wife. .......
I see they're trying to pretend again that Jackie and Lee had all their children together, and that everything was just as normal and peachy-keen as "Father Knows Best".
Bill Mitchell claims he was fishing in Richmond all day Wednesday. He knows it was Wednesday because he was watching the Superbowl on a battery operated TV.
ROFL! The defense is still counting on the testimony of the "one-eyed", one-horned, flying purple people eater.
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