"We're talking about this young lady's wedding dress, and about her personal effects, about the baby's clothes and about the baby's crib," he said.
Stewart said prosecutors had approved the family's request to retrieve personal items, though prosecutors later said they had not given permission.
The episode might have been precipitated by a news release sent out earlier in the week by the Rocha family's lawyers, complaining that they had been unable to reach an agreement with defense attorneys to get Laci Peterson's personal effects out of the house. The release listed the items the family wanted.
According to another family lawyer, Albert Clark, the release prompted an angry phone call Thursday from Scott Peterson's lead defense attorney, Mark Geragos, vowing "war" with the family.
Clark said when he related that conversation to Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, "She was very emotionally distraught and said, 'I've got to do something.'
"So, she acted from the heart," he said.
Modesto police, who arrived at the house while the items were being loaded into pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles and driven away, said they were treating the dispute as a civil matter, though they planned to catalog what had been taken.