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Kim: Here are more Jackie lies

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Scott Peterson's parents and his attorney have prevented his wife's family from entering the couple's Covena Avenue home and retrieving personal items, according to the statement from attorneys Adam J. Stewart and Albert G. Clark.

"The statement that you have is the absolute truth," said Sharon Rocha, Laci Peterson's mother. "I'm not going to comment beyond that."

The statement came with a 22-point list of items that family members want, including Laci's diplomas and journals, and a watering can that says "Laci's Garden."

But family members said that being inside the home that Laci decorated and lived in was more important than retrieving personal items.

Her family members need 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," the statement reads.

According to the statement, lead defense attorney Mark Geragos wrote a letter in response to the request for access. The Laci Peterson family attorneys, in their statement, say that Geragos said it would be "unthinkable to allow anything to be moved or disposed of" until his team had completed its investigation.

Jackie Peterson, Scott's mother, confirmed that members of her family had been in the house. She said nothing had been disturbed.

"We keep it clean," she said from her San Diego County home. "It was sitting there for four months getting overrun, and people were taking things from the grounds."

Missing are two glass hurricane lanterns, loose bricks from a pile near the patio, and a patio chess and checkers board that had marble frog figurines for the playing pieces, she said.

Geragos said in an interview: "It's an awful situation, and we're going to work our way through it with as much dignity as we can. There are two families here who have lost a grandson."

Geragos said he had been working with the Stanislaus County district attorney's office and police investigators to log evidence and anticipated reaching an "ami-cable solution" about the personal items within 10 days.

Geragos also said that he and prosecutors had agreed on an "accelerated process" to release Laci and Conner's remains to her family.

The bodies were found last month about a mile apart along the eastern shoreline of San Francisco Bay. A judge has ordered them held in the Contra Costa County coroner's office until further notice.

According to the statement from the Laci Peterson family attorneys, Jackie Peterson informed Rocha on Sunday that the locks and the alarm code on the house had been changed.

The statement further says that Rocha previously had a key to the house, and requested a new alarm code and a key from Peterson on Sunday, but had yet to receive a response.

Peterson said she previously had left phone messages for Rocha that went unreturned. "She has a lot going on, I can imagine," Peterson said, lamenting that attorneys were involved.

"Since they initiated going through a lawyer, we were advised to go through a lawyer," Peterson said. "We hadn't done that before. We had always talked."

The Laci Peterson family attorneys, in their statement, say Rocha had been watering the lawn and backyard potted plants for several weeks at the Covena Avenue home.

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Scaughty divorcing from the Rocha's! That is what I call the latest bunch of crap from the Petersons!

2 charged in ID theft ring

Who would of thought this would happen on a crime victim Laci Peterson, family

2 charged in ID theft ring

By GARTH STAPLEY
and BLAIR CRADDOCK

Published: May 29, 2003, 06:22:05 AM PDT

People pretending to be members of Laci Peterson's family ran up hotel bills and paid with stolen credit cards, authorities reported Wednesday.

The scheme was one part of an identity theft ring that operated around Northern California and claimed at least 12 victims, authorities said.

Two Modestans have been charged, said Carol Shipley, assistant district attorney for Stanislaus County. "We believe there are others still involved in the ring," she added.

Investigators said they do not think that ring members actually stole credit cards from any of Peterson's relatives.

Instead, the ring members claimed to be family while charging hotel rooms, along with telephone calls, meals and movies, from Feb. 27 through March 6. That was shortly after hundreds of volunteers joined Laci Peterson's family for the last in a series of Saturday searches.

The thieves were likely playing on sympathy, an investigator said, at a time when Peterson, 27 and pregnant, was still missing.

"They probably believed that in dropping those names, they would get less scrutiny" when paying with stolen credit cards, said Marc Burrell, an investigator with the district attorney's office.

He said hotel personnel might not have done everything possible to verify the accounts and the identities of the cardholders. For example, he said, hotels could have asked for identification to see if it matched the account information.

Shipley said she could not immediately provide the names of the hotels that incurred fraudulent charges in the Peterson impersonation scam.

The identity theft ring dealt in more than credit cards, Shipley said.

In victimizing a charity, she said, the ring falsely registered two cars -- a 1986 Nissan Sentra and a 1988 Lincoln Mark VII -- in the charity's name. Shipley said she could not immediately provide the charity's name.

The ring also allegedly used stolen credit card information to buy auto parts and to rent trucks.

The investigation led to a search warrant and three arrests May 2 at a Modesto home, though authorities said one of the arrests was unrelated to the ID theft ring.

Shipley identified Kimberly Sue Brown, 33, and Samuel Torres, 40, as the two suspects arrested in the identity theft case. She said they face charges that include conspiracy and unauthorized credit card use. Both are free on bail.

While serving the search warrant, investigators seized "stacks of fraudulent and stolen ID cards, credit cards and DMV documents," as well as computers, according to a press release from the district attorney's office.

Investigators also reported finding credit card authorization forms, which appeared to have been used to rent hotel rooms, and at least one form carried the wording "family of Laci Peterson."

Shipley said investigators found computer printouts, taken from hotels, that listed guests' names and credit card numbers.

Investigators had not determined whether someone working at one or more hotels was involved in the ring or whether the records were taken from trash, she said.

The district attorney's office is asking to hear from potential victims or anyone with information about the case. Calls should be directed to investigators Marc Burrell or Ken Reid, 558-4495.