| Angry Geragos Launches Verbal Assault
April 15, 2004 Defense attorney Mark Geragos -- angered because an alleged second stealth juror was revealed during the jury selection -- verbally confronted San Mateo County District Attorney Jim Fox , calling him a "piece of crap." He later apologized for the outburst. Geragos was angry because Fox said at a Tuesday news conference that his office had never prosecuted a juror for perjury during the 21 years he has been district attorney and implying, according to Geragos, that there was not enough evidence in the case of the first Peterson trial stealth juror. Geragos' outburst, in which he referred to Fox as "this piece of crap who masquerades as a DA," came after a 33-year-old twice-divorced woman, a psychology student, was sharply questioned about an alleged Internet chat she had with someone about her being a possible Peterson juror. He accused her of "lying through her teeth" so she could hand Scott Peterson a death sentence. Minutes earlier she told prosecutor David Harris that Peterson deserved a fair trial. "I lost my cool a little bit in using a derogatory term about the D.A. in this city and I apologize," Geragos said. Judge Alfred Delucchi also admonished Geragos. "You're an attorney, you're an officer of the court, there's no reason to use that language," Delucchi said. Geragos broadsided the divorced mother with the charge of being a stealth juror in court today, saying she wrote in an online chat room about her plan to sneak onto the jury. He asked the woman whether she had an Internet conversation about the case. Yes, she said, adding that she only wrote that the questionnaire was tedious. He brandished a piece of paper allegedly containing a printout of the chat. "Did you ever say anything to the effect ,'" Geragos asked, reading from a paper on the podium. "anyone with half a brain could [figure] out the answers that the defense was looking for." "No, I don't think so," Juror 17893, said. Geragos told the court he received a tip from a woman who accused a 33-year-old student of boasting in an online spirituality chatroom that she had lied on the jury questionnaire so she could get a seat on the jury. Waving the sheets in the air, Geragos said the chat partner printed out the correspondence and gave it to him. "Did you ever tell anyone that you fooled the defense on the questionnaire?" Geragos asked, facing the juror. "No," she replied. As prosecutors and the judge sat silently looking on, Geragos, his voice rising in anger, began a rapid-fire line of questioning. Had she reported on the questionnaire that she filed for a restraining order against an ex-husband, Geragos asked. "Did you think that these two lawyers might want to know about that?" No, she did not write it down, she responded, but she was unaware that a restraining order was considered a "lawsuit" as the questionnaire had asked. After some sharp questions from Geragos, the woman admitted that she failed to disclose that she has filed two restraining orders against her second ex-husband, whom she has since reconciled with, and that in one of the restraining orders she alleged that he threatened to kill her. In excusing the juror, Judge Alfred Delucchi said the seemingly intelligent woman should have known her past relationships "would stick out like a red light" in a trial that prosecutors believe is about domestic violence. Delucchi, asking the potential juror to step outside, ruled that she should be excused and that it was apparent she had made at least one omission or false statement. "It appears to the court that she's dissembling," Delucchi said. The woman was chased down the courthouse halls and outside by a pack of reporters. She denied lying on her questionnaire and in the courtroom and denied trying to get on the jury to convict Peterson and sentence him to death, which Geragos had charged. She agreed with a reporter's question that the woman who told Geragos about the conversation might have had an axe to grind. She would not provide any other specific answers to reporters' questions. "I don't ever recall saying that," the woman said. "I had no need to be on this case," she said, declining to give her name. "I wanted to give him a fair trial." The alleged stealth juror also said she was glad she would not be on the jury deciding whether or not Peterson murdered his wife Laci and unborn son in December 2002. "I don't have to waste six months. I can go back to school," the woman said. Calling the woman "the ultimate stealth juror," Geragos renewed his request to move the trial to Los Angeles County. He said the number of people in San Mateo County who believe Peterson is guilty is "off the charts," making the state's most populated county the only place to ensure a fair trial. CHANGE OF VENUE - INDEX HOME INDEX LACI JURORS TRIAL NEWS SCOTT EVIDENCE-NEWS COURT DATES WIRETAPS CULT-VAN INDEX AUTOPSY ATTORNEYS |
 |
 |
| LACI & CONNER "My thoughts & prayers are with the Rochas, & have been for over a year now..." Debbie from Tennessee- Guestbook Entry |