been kind of busy with a crazy summer during work.... I am still here, but ......;o)
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The interview of Kristen Dempewolf was an apparent attempt to undercut Scott Peterson's alibi that his wife, Laci Peterson, 27, was preparing to walk the couple's dog when he left for a solo fishing trip, so he could not have killed her.
Like Laci, Dempewolf, 33, was pregnant, had shoulder-length brown hair and regularly walked her dog in the same neighborhood, the Modesto Bee reported Thursday, citing an unidentified source.
If Dempewolf was walking her dog the morning of Dec. 24. -- the same time Scott, 30. told authorities he left for the coast -- it could explain why several witnesses said they saw Laci Peterson walking her dog, the paper reported.
A telephone call to Dempewolf's home Thursday was not immediately returned. Dempewolf's husband, Martin Dempewolf, 34, told the paper his wife had been subpoenaed and was under the gag order.
Scott has pleaded not guilty to two murder charges in the deaths of his wife, Laci, and the couple's unborn child. Laci was eight months pregnant when she disappeared Christmas Eve -- her body and that of her son washed ashore along San Francisco Bay.
Meanwhile, Peterson's defense attorneys have appealed a judge's order that lets the public attend the hearing at which prosecutors will lay out their evidence against the Modesto fertilizer salesman charged with killing his wife and unborn child.
"Unless this court intervenes and closes the preliminary hearing, there will be no chance of obtaining an unbiased jury," defense attorney Mark Geragos wrote in a 28-page request filed Wednesday at the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Fresno.
Stanislaus County Judge Al Girolami ruled last week that the hearing would remain open, though he later banned all cameras and recording devices.
Geragos wants the state appeals court to overturn Girolami -- or order another hearing at which the judge would explain how his decision is not in "direct conflict" with prior rulings that sealed most documents and imposed a gag order.
Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 9. Preliminary hearings are like minitrials at which a judge decides whether the case should go to trial after hearing testimony from witnesses.
Geragos was surprised by the judge's ruling this week to ban cameras from the courtroom after earlier ruling against defense motions to close the hearing.
"It sounds like he repeated everything I said in my arguments to close the hearing," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
Boy, I can certainly relate to that :):)